U.S. Stocks Seeing Further Upside Amid Continued Tech Sector Strength

Following the strong upward move seen in the previous session, stocks are seeing further upside during trading on Wednesday. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have more than offset the slump seen during Monday’s session.

Currently, the major averages are off their highs of the session but still in positive territory. The Nasdaq is up 214.32 points or 0.9 percent at 23,078.00, the S&P 500 is up 35.74 points or 0.5 percent at 6,925.81 and the Dow is up 129.05 points or 0.3 percent at 49,303.55.

The continued strength on Wall Street partly reflects optimism ahead of the release of earnings news from AI chipmaker and market leader Nvidia (NVDA).

Shares of Nvidia are jumping by 1.7 percent ahead of the release of its fourth quarter financial results after the close of today’s trading.

Software giants Salesforce (CRM) and Snowflake (SNOW) are also among the companies due to report their quarterly results later in the day.

Tech giant IBM Corp. (IBM) has also surged by 3.6 percent, continuing to regain ground following a nosedive on Monday after UBS upgraded its rating on the company’s stock to Neutral from Sell.

Shares of Oracle (ORCL) have also shot up by 2.8 percent after Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on the software giant’s stock to Outperform from Perform.

Sector News

Software stocks are turning in some of the market’s best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index surging by 2.6 percent.

The index continues to regain ground after slumping to its lowest closing level in ten months on Monday amid easing AI disruption concerns.

Significant strength is also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Banking, networking and semiconductor stocks are also seeing notable strength, while housing and energy stocks have moved sharply lower on the day.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.2 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi shot up by 1.9 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.3 basis points at 4.046 percent.