Wall Street bounces back as technology stocks gain

US stocks gained on Thursday after a sharp drop on Wednesday that sent the Nasdaq into a correction.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 300 points in early trading. The broader S&P 500 was up 0.9% and the Nasdaq rose 1.7 percent. The Dow tumbled more than 600 points on Wednesday. The Nasdaq lost 4 percent, its worst one-day percentage drop in more than seven years.

Strong corporate earnings, including from software company Microsoft pushed the market higher. Microsoft rose about 3 percent after reporting strong earnings the night before after topping consensus estimates for revenue and profit, helped by strong demand for its Azure cloud computing and Office 365 software products.

Twitter was up 18 percent after reporting higher profit and more engaged customers despite losing users overall. Netflix rebounded after 9 percent Wednesday. Tesla was up 9 percent. The company reported by far its most profitable quarter in history late Wednesday, lessening concerns of a looming cash crunch that had been weighing on shares.

The results, along with gains for chipmakers, lifted technology stocks up 2.32 percent. The sector has lost about 10 percent in October and, if losses hold it would be the worst month for the high-growth sector in nearly 10 years.

Tech will be tested again later on Thursday. Alphabet, Amazon, Snap and Intel all will post their quarterly financial report after the bell.

The market has slumped badly in the past several weeks, but it hasn't fallen in a straight line. Volatility is spiking, and huge sell-offs have been interspersed with big gains, including October 16's 548-point jump for the Dow and October 12's 287-point gain.

REUTERS