U.S. stocks are broadly higher in late-afternoon trading Thursday, putting the market on course to recoup some of the ground it lost a day earlier, when stocks had their biggest drop in eight months.
Phone companies led the rally. Banks also notched gains, even though bond yields were little changed. Investors welcomed strong earnings from Wal-Mart Stores and other retailers.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 10 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,367 as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones industrial average added 73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 20,680. The Nasdaq composite index gained 45 points, or 0.8 percent, to 6,056. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks was up 6 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,362.
THE QUOTE: “People may be wanting to put money to work in stocks, but the bonds they bought yesterday, they’re still going to keep those as a little bit of a hedge, just in case,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.
EYES ON WASHINGTON: The stock market was rebounding from its worst day since September. The slide, which extended to many major indexes overnight in Asia and Europe, was triggered by growing worries that deepening political tumult in Washington will hinder President Donald Trump’s plans to enact tax cuts, infrastructure spending and other business-friendly policies.
BIG BEAT: Wal-Mart Stores rose 3.1 percent after the world’s largest retailer’s latest quarterly results beat Wall Street’s forecasts. The company also noted that its customer traffic rose in the quarter, unlike other major retailers like Macy’s and Target. Wal-Mart’s shares added $2.34 to $77.46.
PROMISING: Incyte surged 7.2 percent on growing analyst optimism over the company’s work developing cancer treatments. The stock gained $8.70 to $129.19.
DISAPPOINTING RESULTS: Ascena Retail Group sank 27.5 percent after the retailer cut its forecast for its fiscal third quarter and full year, citing lagging customer traffic and other challenges. The stock lost 77 cents to $2.05.
IN A SLUMP: Cisco Systems fell 8 percent a day after the internet gear maker said it expects revenue in its fiscal third quarter to be down from a year earlier. The company also said it was laying off 1,100 workers in addition to the 5,500 job cuts Cisco announced last August. The stock gave up $2.69 to $31.13.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil futures rose 28 cents, or 0.6 percent, to close at $49.35 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, climbed 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $52.51 a barrel in London. In other futures trading, natural gas fell 1 cent to $3.18 per 1,000 cubic feet. Wholesale gasoline was little changed at $1.60 per gallon. Heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.54 per gallon.
METALS: The price of gold fell $5.90 to settle at $1,252.80 per ounce. Silver lost 24 cents to $16.67 per ounce. Copper slipped 2 cents to $2.53 per pound.
CURRENCIES: The euro slipped to $1.1104 from $1.1153 on Wednesday. The dollar strengthened to 111.46 yen from 111.17 yen.
TREASURY YIELDS: Bond prices slipped. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.23 percent from 2.22 percent.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: In Europe, Germany’s DAX was down 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 was 0.5 percent lower. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.9 percent. In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index slid 1.3 percent. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6 percent.
