Wall Street Rally Erases Week-Long Losses

Stocks on Wall Street rallied for the second straight day Thursday and have now reversed the market’s sharp pullback at the start of the week, Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga reported for the Associated Press (AP) on September 24, 2021.

Photo Insert: a.k.a. was one of the companies that celebrated its New York Stock Exchange listing yesterday.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, with more than 85% of companies in the benchmark index notching gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq rose 1%.

The rally put the major indexes on pace for weekly gains just four days after a broad sell-off handed the S&P 500 its biggest skid since May and knocked the Dow more than 600 points lower.

The market’s sharp swing from Monday, when the S&P 500 slumped 1.7%, to Thursday, when it closed with 0.4% gain for the week, reflects how quickly investor sentiment can change and is another example of how in a market that’s near all-time highs, traders tend to see waves of selling as buying opportunities.

Monday’s sell-off was triggered by concerns about the potential for default by Evergrande, a huge, debt-laden private Chinese real estate developer. Traders also were feeling uneasy about how quickly the Federal Reserve might elect to rein in some of the support measures it’s been giving the markets and economy.

The change in investor sentiment has also put oil prices in the green. Benchmark US crude oil is now up 1.2% for the week. Bond yields moved solidly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.43% from 1.32% late Wednesday, a big move.

All told, the S&P 500 index rose 53.34 points to 4,448.98. The Dow gained 506.50 points to 34,764.82, while the Nasdaq rose 155.40 points to 15,052.24. Technology companies and banks led the way higher Thursday. Cloud-based software company

Salesforce.com was a standout with a 7.2% gain after raising its sales forecast for the year. Citigroup rose 3.9%. Small-company stocks, which are typically a good measure of investor confidence for economic growth, also jumped over to the winning column.

The Russell 2000 rose 40.48 points, or 1.8%, to 2,259.04. It’s up 1% for the week. Other standouts included Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants. Its stock jumped 6.1% after delivering strong quarterly results. European and Asian markets rose.

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