(RTTNews) – After seeing considerable volatility early in the session, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages all moved to the upside after yesterday’s mixed performance, with the Nasdaq leading the charge.
The Nasdaq ended the day just off its high of the session, jumping 336.24 points or 1.3 percent to 26,206.89. The S&P 500 also advanced 60.93 points or 0.8 percent to 7,543.64, while the narrower Dow rose 139.02 points or 0.3 percent to 52,487.41.
As reflected by the surge by the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the strength on Wall Street largely reflected a rally by technology stocks.
Positive sentiment was generated in reaction to reports that the SK Hynix IPO was heavily oversubscribed, with the South Korean semiconductor company’s U.S.-listed shares expected to commence trading on Friday.
Micron Technology (MU) helped lead the sector higher, as the chipmaker spiked by 4.5 percent after announcing plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply-chain ecosystem.
A sharp pullback by the price of crude oil also generated buying interest, with U.S. crude oil futures tumbling by more than 2 percent after soaring over the past two days.
Oil prices gave back ground despite the renewed exchange of attacks between the U.S. and Iran, as traders remain optimistic that a full-blown war can be avoided.
The pullback was partly attributed to President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran wants to “make a deal so badly,” although that is in line with his typical rhetoric.
Trump’s comment came after U.S. Central Command said forces attacked about 90 military targets in an effort to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran reportedly responded to the latest round of U.S. airstrikes with attacks targeting Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Sector News
Computer hardware stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index surging by 3.6 percent.
Significant strength was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 3.3 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The rally by gold stocks came amid a rebound by the price of the precious metal.
Networking, semiconductor and airline stocks also saw considerable strength, while energy stocks moved to the downside along with the price of crude oil.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid by 0.7 percent.
Meanwhile, European stocks moved mostly higher on the day. The German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.9 percent, although the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and dipped by 0.2 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries regained ground after moving sharply lower over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 3.0 basis points to 4.539 percent.
