Stock market today: Dow gains as tech rebounds ahead of inflation data

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The Dow rose Thursday, as tech rebounded, shrugging off a climb in Treasury yields as investors looked ahead to data due Friday expected to show a further easing in inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.55%, or 184 points, the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.1%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.75%.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) jumped more than 1% to lead tech higher following several days of losses as COVID restrictions in China, which are expected to weigh on iPhone production, were eased.

Chip stocks also played a role in pushing tech higher, rising more than 2% following a rally in NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) as investors awaited further insight into chip demand as semiconductor bellwether Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) reports results after closing bell.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), meanwhile, was up more than 1% even as the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that it was planning to sue to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), citing anti-competition concerns.

Treasury yields, meanwhile, continued their ascent, but that had little impact on the growth sectors including tech as investors look ahead to data due Friday expected to show that producer prices are slowing.

“A continued retreat in producer price pressures will increasingly secure a smaller rate hike of 50bps come Wednesday, however, a larger-than-expected rise, or worse, a reversal in the downward trend could undermine the Fed’s plans for a pivot to a less aggressive policy,” Stifel said in a note ahead of the PPI report.

Still, the steep inversion in the Treasury yield curve, a harbinger of a recession, that hasn’t been seen since 1981 continued to keep fears of a Fed-led recession alive.

“If it [the yield curve] were just mildly inverted, maybe you could make the case that the longer term economic outlook looks better than the shorter term, but given the magnitude of that inversion, I think that certainly tilts my opinion more towards a potential recession,” Melissa Brown, Qontigo Managing Director of Applied Research said Thursday in an interview with Investing.com’s Yasin Ebrahim.

GameStop (NYSE:GME), meanwhile, rose more than 11% despite reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as investors mulled chief executive Matthew Furlong’s remarks on transforming the video retailer.

Rent the Runway Inc (NASDAQ:RENT) racked up 74% after reporting lifting guidance following better-than-expected quarterly results. The Fashion rental company also confirmed that the bulk of its restructuring efforts were now complete.