In a frenetic trading session, the Nasdaq Composite forged a comeback for the history books on Friday.
The technology-laden index had been down by as much as 2.6% to hit an intraday nadir at 12,397.05, as data released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that a solid recovery was under way on the jobs front, pushing bond yields up sharply.
But Friday afternoon the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.55% closed up 1.6% at 12,920.15, near its highs of the day and marking the sharpest intraday comeback since Feb. 28 when the Nasdaq fell by as much as 2.5% and closed 0.1% higher.
By another measure, the Nasdaq Composite’s rebound from its trough to around where it 4 percentage points, which would be the biggest comeback since March 19, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Optimism around the employment picture added to worries that red-hot technology stocks would wither in the face of the prospect of rising bond yields and inflation, which the nonfarm payrolls report for February implied.
Read: MarketWatch’s snapshot of the market
The data showed that the U.S. added 379,000 jobs last month and the unemployment number fell to 6.2% from 6.3%, well above the forecast of 210,000.
The 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.567% yield briefly jumped to around 1.62% and the markets, though.
The Nasdaq Composite closed Thursday trade just about 27 basis points from falling 10% from its most recent peak on Feb. 12, which meets the most commonly used definition for an asset correction.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.85% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.95% also are trading near session highs after both trading under heavy selling pressure earlier in the session.
Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday helped to drive bond yields sharply higher because they were seen as insufficiently concerned about the possibility of inflation as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, with help from another dose of fiscal stimulus from Washington.
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