Stock Investors Buy-the-dip, Loading Up 'Over-sold' Stocks

The S&P 500 rebounded Thursday, as traders loaded up on oversold stocks following a broader market sell-off a day earlier after the U.S. confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

• The S&P 500 rose 1.4%,
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.82%, or 619 points,
• The Nasdaq added 0.83%
  

Wednesday session's bearish reversal pushes U.S. equities into oversold territory once again and sets us up for another strong rally effort. 

Financials outperformed the broader market, led by banking stocks as Treasury yields rose after some on Wall Street suggested that a potentially more contagious Omicron variant could speed up the end of the pandemic and ultimately cause the yield curve to steepen, rotation from growth to value, sell-off in COVID and lockdown beneficiaries and rally in reopening themes.

Banks were among the biggest gainers in financial, rising more than 4%.

Industrial was also helped by a rebound in airline stocks, led by Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) after China cleared the aircraft maker’s 737 Max to return to the skies on Thursday.  The 737 Max returned to service in China after being grounded for more than two years following two fatal crashes.

Energy stocks were boosted by rising oil prices after OPEC and its allies decided to stick with their current plan of lifting oil output by 400,000 barrels a day in January.

Tech stocks, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) pared some losses after the tech giant warned some of its chip suppliers of weaker demand for its latest iPhones, Bloomberg reported.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) ended higher despite losing some steam after The Federal Trade Commission sued to block the chipmaker's $40 billion acquisition of Arm from SoftBank, citing antitrust concerns.

On the economic front, better-than-expected weekly jobless claims data stoked optimism on the labor market recovery ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs.

The Labor Department reported that 222,000 people filed for unemployment insurance, confounding economists’ expectations for an 18,000 rise.

A blowout jobs report, however, could give force the Federal Reserve to hike rates and spook investors.   

Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by 560,000 in November, with the unemployment rate expected to drop to 4.4%.

source: Investing.com