Wall St charges ahead as Big Tech relief rally continues

Wall Street’s main indexes advanced on Wednesday, aided by a dovish turn by Japan’s top policymaker after a surprise interest rate hike last week which partly sparked heavy volatility in global markets.

Global equity markets gained after Bank of Japan (BOJ) Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida said the central bank would not raise interest rates when financial markets are unstable, pushing the yen JPY=EBS lower and boosting market sentiment.

The BOJ’s surprise rate hike on July 31 to a level unseen in 15 years had led to a surge in the low-yielding yen, widely used for acquiring high-yielding assets such as stocks, and sparked a global stocks rout as investors unwound their sharp currency carry trade positions.

“Like many trades that get “crowded,” people start to take advantage that it’s an easy way to make money and that tends to end badly,” said JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG Group North America.

“Things got really overdone really quickly and now, cooler heads are prevailing.”

The CBOE Volatility index .VIX, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, declined to 22.84 points, from a high of 65.73 on Monday.

At 09:35 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 285.67 points, or 0.73 percent, to 39,279.77, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 64.26 points, or 1.23 percent, to 5,304.29 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 282.80 points, or 1.73 percent, to 16,649.66.

Big technology names such as Nvidia NVDA.O and Amazon.com AMZN.O continued their recovery after falling sharply on Monday, rising about 3 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading higher, with information technology .SPLRCT and energy .SPNY leading gains.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended Tuesday more than 1 percent higher as comments from Federal Reserve officials eased worries of a US recession and the spotlight shifted back to earnings.

FortinetFTNT.O jumped 21.9 percent after the cybersecurity firm raised its annual revenue forecast.

On the flipside, Airbnb ABNB.O slid 14.1 percent after the company forecast third-quarter revenue below estimates and warned of shorter booking windows, suggesting travelers were waiting until the last minute to book due to economic uncertainty.

Super Micro Computer SMCI.O lost 13.6 percent after reporting quarterly adjusted gross margins below estimates. Rival Dell Technologies DELL.N dropped 5.3 percent.

Amgen AMGN.O fell 3.1 percent as its second-quarter profit slipped 1 percent on higher expenses that offset a 20 percent increase in revenue.

Charles River Laboratories CRL.N slipped 12 percent after the contract research firm trimmed its annual forecast, as it no longer expects demand for its drug discovery and development services to improve in the second half of the year.

The markets now await more commentary on monetary policy from US central bank officials next week, in the run-up to the Jackson Hole event where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 5.51-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.74-to-1 ratio on the Nadaq.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 19 new highs and 26 new lows.