Wall Street recovers as technology stocks bounce back

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks recouped some losses on Wednesday after a brutal two-day selloff as strong earnings from Foot Locker and gains in technology stocks lifted investor sentiment ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Foot Locker Inc shares surged 15.9 percent after the footwear retailer's quarterly same-store sales trumped expectations and boosted other sports retailers.

Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods Inc and Hibbett Sports Inc rising about 3 percent, while those of Nike Inc , a Foot Locker supplier, gained 1.5 percent.

Gap Inc rose 4.4 percent after several Wall Street brokerages took positively to Chief Executive Arthur Peck's more aggressive plan to close underperforming stores, which is expected to eliminate significant losses.

 

Gains in Foot Locker and Gap helped push the S&P consumer discretionary <.SPLRCD> index 1.7 percent higher.

The S&P energy index <.SPNY> led the gainers among the 11 S&P sectors with a 2.5 percent rise, as oil prices steadied after a 6 percent plunge the previous day. [O/R]

The pressure on technology stocks appeared to have eased on Wednesday, with the S&P technology sector <.SPLRCT>, posting a 1.4 percent rise after three sessions of declines.

Four members of the so-called FAANG group were higher - Facebook Inc , Apple Inc , Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc rose between 0.3 percent and 2.6 percent - while Netflix Inc edged 0.5 percent lower.

Autodesk Inc jumped 8.8 percent and was the top gainer among the tech sector after the software company reported third-quarter results above analysts' estimates and announced an $875 million deal to buy cloud-based software company PlanGrid.

"The market probably came in a bit oversold this week, which traditionally on a Thanksgiving week, is very unlike what it usually does," said Larry Benedict, founder of The Opportunistic Trader in Boca Raton, Florida.

"This is a little bit of a relief. And if you go back in history this is an up day (day before Thanksgiving) about 85 percent of the time."

A report by capital markets-focused MNI saying the Fed may pause its rate hiking cycle as early as spring could also be supporting the markets, some market experts said.

At 12:51 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 167.87 points, or 0.69 percent, at 24,633.51, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 24.95 points, or 0.94 percent, at 2,666.84 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 109.14 points, or 1.58 percent, at 7,017.96.

Worries about slowing global growth and peaking corporate earnings have sapped risk appetite in recent months, throwing into doubt the longevity of the decade-old bull run for stocks.

Nasdaq closed at its lowest level in over seven months on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow erased all their gains for the year.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.20-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 4.11-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded nine new highs and 60 new lows.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Arun Koyyur)