U.S. stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday, more than offsetting the weakness seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved higher on the day, with the Nasdaq leading the advance.
The major averages reached new highs for the session going into the close of trading. The Nasdaq surged 210.16 points or 1.8 percent to 11,926.24, the S&P 500 shot up 56.54 points or 1.4 percent to 4,027.81 and the Dow jumped 323.35 points or 1.0 percent to 32,717.60.
Forceful actions by regulators have helped to calm some of the worries about banks. By Wednesday, a measure of fear among stock investors on Wall Street fell to nearly where it was on March 8. That was the day before Silicon Valley Bank’s customers suddenly yanked out $42 billion in a panicked dash. It became the second-largest U.S. bank failure in history and sparked harsher scrutiny of banks around the world.
The rally on Wall Street partly reflected a rebound by technology stocks, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq recovering from the pulled back seen early in the week to reach its best closing level in well over a month.
Semiconductor stocks helped lead the recovery in the tech sector, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 3.3 percent.
The index closed lower in the three previous sessions after reaching its best closing level in almost a year last Thursday.
Micron (MU) posted a standout gain after the chipmaker reported weaker than expected fiscal second quarter results but executives predicted a strong 2025 due to a boost from artificial intelligence.
Considerable strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Outside the tech sector, commercial real estate stocks saw significant strength on the day, resulting in a 2.2 percent jump by the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index.
Airline, banking and tobacco stocks also showed notable moves to the upside, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
The markets also benefited from a continued easing of concerns about contagion from the recent turmoil in the banking sector.
U.S.-listed shares of UBS Group (UBS) moved sharply higher after the Swiss lender announced Sergio Ermotti will return as CEO to steer its massive takeover of Credit Suisse (CS), RTTNews reported.
In the U.S. economic news, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly increased for the third straight month in February.
NAR said its pending home sales index climbed by 0.8 percent to 83.2 in February after spiking by 8.1 percent to 82.5 in January. Economists had expected pending home sales to slump by 3.0 percent.
The pending home sales index reached its highest level since hitting 88.3 last August but was still down by 21.1 percent compared to a year ago.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Looking Ahead
Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to a report on weekly jobless claims as well as a revised reading on fourth quarter GDP.
