Tech stocks lead Wall Street’s bounce after two-day slide

(Reuters) – Wall Street climbed more than 1 percent on Friday following its worst two-day slide in eight months, with technology and other high-growth stocks leading a fight back.

Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by the technology sector’s .SPLRCT 3.11 percent jump, with Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Apple (AAPL.O) gaining 3 percent.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) reversed earlier gains to tread lower after their quarterly results, while Citigroup (C.N) was up 1 percent as its profit topped estimates.

The bank results launch a quarterly reporting season that will give the clearest picture yet of the impact on profits from President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.

“The market is going to focus on not just current quarter earnings, but guidance going forward, particularly as it relates to the profit margins. You’ve got some indications of rising wage pressure and higher interest rates,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.

“The underperformance from banks and financial sector even as rates have moved higher has been a bit of a warning sign for the market overall. If you can get banks starting to trend higher and providing some leadership for the market, then that helps switch some of the fears that are in the market overall.”

Earnings at S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 21.3 percent in the third quarter, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv, a slowdown from the previous two quarters.

Wall Street’s two-day slide this week was its worst in eight months, pulling the three major indexes down a little over 5 percent each, with the Nasdaq .IXIC narrowly avoiding moving into correction territory.

“A bounce off the lows isn’t unexpected, but the key will be what kind of a market support it has and whether or not it can persist,” said Delwiche.

At 10:04 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 347.71 points, or 1.39 percent, at 25,400.54, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 46.39 points, or 1.70 percent, at 2,774.76 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 183.33 points, or 2.50 percent, at 7,512.39.

The other major gainers were the consumer discretionary .SPLRCD and communication services .SPLRCL sectors, which rose 2.73 percent and 2.08 percent, respectively.

The two sectors, along with tech, house the high-growth FAANG group. Facebook (FB.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Netflix (NFLX.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) were higher between Facebook’s 1.3 percent and Netflix’s 5.8 percent.

Citigroup recommended buying Netflix’s shares, saying the recent sell-off was overdone. The stock’s 9.7 slide in the past two days is the most among the FAANGs.

However, Philip Morris (PM.N) fell 1.3 percent and Altria (MO.N) dropped 1.7 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reasserted its previous focus on reducing nicotine in cigarettes, in a presentation.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 4.77-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 4.96-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week highs and nine new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded six new highs and 53 new lows.