Wall Street Soars as Bargain Hunting and Strong Sentiment Spark Broad-Based Rally

U.S. stocks surged with the Dow jumping over 1,200 points amid renewed buying interest and upbeat consumer sentiment; airline, tech and gold stocks led gains despite Amazon's sharp drop.

The Dow soared 1,206.95 points (2.5%) to 50,115.67, the Nasdaq surged 490.63 points (2.2%) to 23,031.21 and the S&P 500 jumped 133.90 points (2%) to 6,932.30.

A bargain-hunting rally lifted Wall Street as traders seized the opportunity to buy stocks at discounted levels following recent weakness. Tech stocks, which had led the earlier decline, dragged the Nasdaq to a two-month low while the S&P 500 touched its lowest intraday level in over a month before partially recovering.

 

Positive sentiment was boosted by the University of Michigan report showing U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to 57.3 in February, its highest since August 2025, driven by optimism among wealthier investors. The broader market rebound came despite a sharp 5.6% drop in Amazon shares after the company posted slightly weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and projected higher-than-anticipated 2026 capital spending.

Airline stocks showed a substantial move, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 7.1% to its best closing level in over three years. Computer hardware and semiconductor stocks moved sharply higher following recent weakness, driving the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 6.8% and 5.7%, respectively. Gold prices increased sharply contributing to significant strength among gold stocks, as reflected by the 5.5% spike by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Networking, financial and oil service stocks also showed strong moves to the upside, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.8%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 1.2%. Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day while the German DAX Index jumped by 0.9%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6% and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4%.

In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction after ending the previous session sharply higher. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.20%.

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