After tumbling on Tuesday and Wednesday, the tech-rich Nasdaq spent much of Thursday in the red, however, stocks strengthened later in the day, lifting the index into positive territory.
“Growth (stocks) might be seen as being a little oversold,” said Art Hogan, chief strategist at National Securities, adding that investors have fewer questions about Federal Reserve intentions after a stream of recent comments from central bankers, and the minutes of last month’s policy meeting spelled out an aggressive posture to counter inflation.
“Having a roadmap of future monetary policy took away some of the shock factor,” Hogan said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3 percent to finish the day at 34,584.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to 4,500, while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.1 percent rise to close at 13,897.
Investors are beginning to look ahead to a heavy calendar next week that includes release of new consumer price data and earnings from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and other leading banks.
This week was light on new statistics, but a report released on Thursday showed new jobless claims returned to a multi-decade low last week.
Among individual companies, HP surged 14.8 percent on news that Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway had built about an 11 percent stake in the technology company. (AFP)