By Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main stock indexes rose over 1% on Tuesday, as investors looked for bargains after a global stock selloff and dovish comments from Federal Reserve officials lifted market sentiment.
All of S&P 500’s sub-indexes advanced, led by the real estate sector that was up 1.8%.
Among megacap and growth stocks, Nvidia made a sharp recovery with a 4.4% gain after posting similar losses on Monday, while Apple slipped over 1%, extending a nearly 5% drop in the previous session after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cut its stake in the iPhone maker by half.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite posted losses of at least 3% each in the previous session after weak economic data raised worries of a U.S. recession and the unwinding of sharp positions of carry trades that fund high-yielding assets.
Goldman Sachs in a note said investors typically profit when they buy after a 5% selloff in the S&P 500 index.
“We’re getting a relief rally specifically because the yen depreciated a little bit overnight… so the selling pressure has abated, which provides an opportunity for the market to rise with some buyers coming to the table,” said David Waddell, CEO and chief investment strategist at Waddell & Associates.
Concerns about the markets were exacerbated by investors winding down yen-funded trades, used to finance acquisition of stocks for years, after a surprise Bank of Japan rate hike last week.
U.S. central bank policymakers pushed back on Monday against the notion that weaker-than-expected July jobs data means the economy is in recessionary freefall, but also warned that the Fed will need to cut rates to avoid such an outcome.
The next big Fed event is Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole on Aug. 22-24.
Traders currently see an about 73.5% chance of a 50-basis-point rate cut in September, down from 85% on Monday and expect the year-end rates at 4.25%-4.50%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
At 11:24 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.78 points, or 0.82%, to 39,021.05, the S&P 500 gained 69.49 points, or 1.34%, to 5,255.82 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 229.45 points, or 1.42%, to 16,429.53.
Among other movers, Palantir Technologies surged 11.8% after the software services provider raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts for the second time this year.
Uber jumped 7.7% after it beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue and core profit, helped by steady demand for its ride-sharing and food-delivery services.
Caterpillar added 3% after beating analyst estimates for second-quarter profit, as higher prices on its larger excavators and other equipment countered moderating demand in North America.
Kenvue added 13.2% after beating estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue, helped primarily by better-than-expected sales in its essential health products unit.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.29-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and five new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 96 new lows.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shinjini Ganguli)
