A dramatic sales warning from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and a seven-year-high in weekly jobless claims had stocks predictably on the defensive early Thursday, but the rebound that began in the final three hours of trading was anything but predictable.
The major indexes turned around after the Nasdaq and S&P hit 5 1/2-year lows to end the day more than 6% higher, as traders bought ahead of a 20-nation meeting on hopes for a solution to the global financial crisis.
Even Intel ended the day 6.7% higher at $14.43, more than $1.50 off the day’s low. HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) also ended the day higher despite steep early declines.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and National Semi (NYSE: NSM) also rallied despite weak outlooks, and NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC) surged on their quarterly results.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) were among the names outpacing the Nasdaq’s 6.5% gain.
Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) fell 10% on a Lazard Capital downgrade.
The Nasdaq rose 97 to 1596, the S&P gained 58 to 911, and the Dow surged 552 to 8835. Volume rose to 7.87 billion shares on the NYSE, and 3.08 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 26-9 margin on the NYSE, and 20-8 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 92% on the NYSE, and 89% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 9-685 on the NYSE, and 4-731 on the Nasdaq.
