US: Stocks rally amid hopes market has bottomed

WALL Street stocks finished solidly higher on Monday following hints the United States could end some tariffs on China as investors pondered whether the year’s bearish trend may have ebbed. Appearing in Tokyo for the launch of a new Asia-Pacific trade initiative, US President Joe Biden said he was considering removing some of the punitive import duties enacted by former president Donald Trump on China. Adding to that positive, some market watchers pointed to technical factors that suggest stocks may have reached a short-term bottom, setting the stage for a rebound. “It’s a day where the market has finally been able to catch its breath, at least for now,” said Art Hogan, strategist at National Securities. The S&P 500 finished up 1.9 per cent at 3,973.75. The broad-based index briefly tumbled into a bear market on Friday, a drop of more than 20 per cent from its peak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.0 per cent to 31,880.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.6 per cent to 11,535.27. Among individual companies, VMware jumped 25.3 per cent following reports it is in talks with Broadcom to be acquired. Broadcom fell 3.1 per cent. Dow member JPMorgan Chase surged 6.2 per cent as the large bank raised its forecast for 2022 net interest income in light of Federal Reserve moves to raise interest rates. AFP