U.S. Stocks Regaining Ground Following Two-Day Pullback

(RTTNews) - Following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions, stocks have moved back to the upside during trading on Thursday. The major averages are all regaining ground, with the Dow and the S&P 500 climbing back toward their recent record highs.

Currently, the major averages are off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Dow is up 296.96 points or 0.6 percent at 49,446.59, the Nasdaq is up 177.33 points or 0.8 percent at 23,649.08 and the S&P 500 is up 39.70 points or 0.6 percent at 6,966.30.

The rebound on Wall Street partly reflects a positive reaction to earnings news from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), with the chipmaker surging by 6.5 percent.

Taiwan Semiconductor is rallying after reporting a sharp increase in fourth quarter profits and announced larger-than-expected capital spending plans, contributing to renewed confidence in the artificial intelligence trade.

"After last week's revenue update it was an open secret that TSMC would be reporting a record quarter but the details are still striking," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

"Not least the levels of capital expenditure TSMC is committing to, suggesting it is fully confident the AI boom has legs," he added. "This is underlined by the company's guidance for 30% growth in 2026."

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly dipped in the week ended January 10th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 198,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 207,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 215,000 from the 208,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Sector News

Semiconductor stocks are turning in some of the market's best performances on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 3.0 percent to a record intraday high.

Considerable strength is also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Networking, financial and airline stocks are also seeing notable strength, while pharmaceutical stocks have shown a significant move to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.4 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped by 0.3 percent, while South Korea's Kospi jumped by 1.6 percent.

The major European markets are also mixed on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.5 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are giving back ground after moving higher over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.8 basis points at 4.158 percent.