US: Stocks rebound on tech rally; S&P +1.8%

[NEW YORK] US shares put on a solid rally on Wednesday, with investors piling back into blue chips and especially tech stocks as a Federal Reserve report depicted steady US economic growth.

While worries over China's economy persist - and the market did not make up Tuesday's three percent plunge - Wall Street investors appeared to decide that the selloff had gone too far.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 293.03 points (1.82 per cent) at 16,351.38.

The broader S&P 500 gained 35.01 (1.83 per cent) at 1,948.86, while the Nasdaq Composite added 113.87 (2.46 per cent) at 4,749.98.

Leading the way was a 4.3 per cent surge in the shares of the world's top-valued listed company, Apple, which is a part of all three indices.

Close in its wake were Microsoft (+3.7 per cent), Facebook (+3.1 per cent) and Twitter (2.9 per cent).

Banks, which led the loss column on Tuesday, also pulled back. Wells Fargo added 2.0 per cent, JPMorgan Chase 1.8 per cent, and Bank of America 2.1 per cent.

Helping build confidence was the Fed's periodic Beige Book survey, which depicted the economy still growing at a modest to moderate pace across most of the central bank's 12 districts, with survey respondents optimistic about the coming months.

"Respondents in most sectors across districts expected growth to continue at its recent pace," it said.

At the same time, it gave no evidence of inflationary pressures, nor of any strong tightening of the job market, that could force the Fed to start raising interest rates at its next meeting in two weeks.

Analysts cautioned that the volatility in stocks was not over.

"We're still in a pattern of a day down and a day up, or two days down and two days up," said Mace Blicksilver of Marblehead Asset Management.

"The market may just be adjusting at these lower levels until we get some new news." Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.19 per cent from 2.17 per cent Tuesday while the 30-year pushed to 2.97 per cent from 2.93 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

AFP