Wall Street surged on Thursday, bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous, holiday-shortened week as technology stocks rebounded.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 311.56 points, or 1.31 per cent, to 24,159.98, the S&P 500 gained 36.46 points, or 1.40 per cent, to 2,641.46 and the Nasdaq Composite added 114.22 points, or 1.64 per cent, to 7,063.45.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.66 per cent, the S&P added 2.07 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 1.01 per cent.
For the month of March, the Dow lost 3.47 per cent, the S&P was down 2.65 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 2.88 per cent.
For the first quarter of the year, the Dow lost 2.27 per cent, the S&P fell 1.19 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 2.32 per cent.
Canada’s main stock index posted its biggest gain in more than six weeks on Thursday, led by resource and financial shares, but still suffered its deepest quarterly decline in two-and-a-half years.
The S&P/TSX closed up 197.35 points, or 1.3 per cent, at 15,367.29, led higher by strong gains from energy stocks.
The energy sector rose 2.5 per cent, led higher by a 1 per cent increase in the price of oil as market participants weighed a rise in U.S. crude inventories and production against continued OPEC supply curbs.
Husky Energy, Encana, and Cenovus each rose more than 4 per cent.
Materials stocks also gained 2.5 per cent. First Quantum gained 8.5 per cent, Lundin Mining added 5 per cent and Teck Resources was up 4.5 per cent.
Tech stocks rose 0.6 per cent. Pivot Tech rose 7.4 per cent and Shopify rose 2.1 per cent.
A report showed economic growth data unexpectedly slowed in January in a clear sign that first-quarter growth is likely to be weaker than the Bank of Canada had predicted.
Canada’s growth dwindled 0.1 per cent last month, while analysts were expecting a rise of 0.1 per cent after a revised 0.2-per-cent gain in December.
“This reinforces the point that there is little urgency to hike rates again,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Financial Group.
“Markets are closing out a weak quarter as they adjust to a new regime of higher rates, potential higher inflation and political uncertainty,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “Fundamentals, however, like economic growth and equity valuations, remain supportive.”
The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of a global trade war, and a selloff in the tech sector.
Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday as the S&P 500 information technology index rose 2.5 percent and helped push the S&P 500 more than 1 percent higher, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.
Technology gains were led by Facebook, Apple , Alphabet and Microsoft shares.
“Tech recovered after a weak few days as the sector remains one of the few to offer very strong growth in the near future,” said Carter.
Trading volume was light ahead of the long holiday weekend.
Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to more than a 45-year low.
In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The price index is the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, and has been below the central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.
Amazon.com climbed 1.1 per cent, recovering from a 4.6-per-cent drop after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state & local governments.”
Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.
But trade war fears led global investors to cut their equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce their holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.