Wall Street rallies as trade war panic subsides

NEW YORK: US stocks forged higher on Thursday as tech shares advanced and Treasury yields continued to recover from this week's trade war scare.

The gains for the day drove the broad-based S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq indices back in to positive territory after several wild days.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4 percent to finish at 26,378.19 while the S&P 500 gained 1.9 percent, settling at 2,938.09.

The Nasdaq added 2.2 percent, closing at 8,039.16.

US equities have yo-yoed this month, battered by disappointment with the Federal Reserve, frightening economic data out of Europe, falling Treasury yields and a sudden deterioration in the US-China trade war.

But yields on the 10-year US Treasury were up 0.02 percentage point at around 1.72 percent, a day after touching three-year low.

"I don't think that the risks are passed. I doubt that the worst is over yet," Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisors told AFP. "Typically, August, September, October are not very healthy periods for the market."

Among individual companies, Symantec soared 12.3 percent following reports the security software was close to being acquired by Broadcom for around $10 billion. A deal for part of Symantec's business was announced after the close.

Microchip maker AMD flew 16.2 percent higher after launching new processor chips and adding Google and Twitter as customers.

But Kraft Heinz sank 8.6 percent after writing down several businesses and posting a decline in net sales for the first half of 2019.