US stocks overturned early losses to trade higher on Wednesday as some buyers returned to a market still shaking from a record fall for the Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier this week.
At 11:35am ET (1635 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 248.06 points, or 1.00 percent, at 25,160.83.
The S&P 500 .SPX rose 19.12 points, or 0.70 percent, to 2,714.26 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 22.72 points, or 0.32 percent, at 7,138.60.
‘It looks like a little bit of a stabilization trade overnight,’ said John Brady, senior vice president at futures brokerage RJ O’Brien & Associates in Chicago.
‘I don’t know if it’s over, but a market range may be established.’
Gains in industrial and consumer discretionary stocks led advances on the S&P and the Dow.
At 11:35am ET (1635 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 248.06 points, or 1.00 percent, at 25,160.83
Gains in industrial and consumer discretionary stocks led advances on the S&P and the Dow. The above photo shows trader Richard Newman on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday
Boeing (BA.N) and United Tech (UTX.N) rose about 1.5 percent, providing the biggest boost to the Dow, while Amazon’s (AMZN.O) 1 percent rise helped lift the S&P.
The S&P energy index .SPNY was up more than 1 percent, led by Anadarko Petroleum’s (APC.N) 5 percent gain and an uptick in oil prices.
A wild session on Tuesday had seen the Dow swing more than 1,100 points from peak to trough and ended with the benchmark S&P 500 recording its best day since just before President Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
Traders are still braced for more volatility as they try to figure out if the swings of the past week are the start of a deeper correction or just a temporary blip in the US market’s nine-year bull run.
The pivotal gauge of S&P 500 volatility, the VIX .VIX, opened at a relatively elevated 31 points and slipped to 21.74.
The VIX on Tuesday hit a more than two-and-a-half year high above 50, after trading, on average, below 20 for months.
Some investors fear the market is over-stretched in the context of higher inflation and rising bond yields as central banks withdraw their easy money policies of recent years.
The recent rout has wiped about $4 trillion off world equities.