S&P 500 Snaps 2-Day Losing Streak as Tech U-Turn Triggers Rally By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 snapped a two-day losing streak Thursday as tech found its footing following a recent drumming that some on Wall Street say pressured stocks to oversold levels that may be too attractive too ignore.  

The S&P 500 was up 0.55%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62%, or 199 points, the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.12%, but had been down more than 1% intraday.

“We believe the action today may be pushing stocks into moderately oversold territory on a short-term basis once again,” Janney Montgomery Scott said. “[W]e are on guard for some choppy action ahead with the likelihood of a trading rally materializing soon.”

The dip buying in tech comes even as leaders of megacap tech including Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) are under scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), meanwhile, also appears to be one of those stocks that could be flashing attractive valuations after Ark Investor’s Cathie Wood snapped up positions in the stock following a more than 5% slump a day earlier.

Still, rising U.S. bond yields, the overarching headwind for growth, kept a lid on tech as a weaker-than-expected seven-year Treasury auction continued to suggest investors are betting on rates going higher.

The backdrop of rising rates continued to offer support to bank stocks, with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM),. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and Citigroup (NYSE:C) the standout performers. 

In industrials, Boeing reportedly could resume deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners as soon as Friday following a five-month stall as the aircraft maker sought to repair structural flaws of the plane, Bloomberg reported.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) ended up 3%, while other aviation stocks including airlines like United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL), Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) clawed back some recent losses.

Energy stocks, meanwhile, shrugged off a slump in oil prices amid fears the lockdown in Europe could dent the supply-demand rebalancing.

The broader economy, meanwhile, continues to expand as jobless claims fell more than expected and fourth-quarter GDP beat economists’ estimates.

President Joe Biden talked up the progress on the economy after doubling the vaccine target to 200 million shots in arms within the first 100 days of his presidency. “A number of economists are projecting GDP to increase by 6% this year ….” Biden told reporters Thursday at his first official press conference. The latest jobs report showed the unemployment claims fell below pre-pandemic highs, he added.

In other news, GameStop (NYSE:GME) jumped 52%, clawing back some of its losses following its post-earnings slump earlier this week.