By Tanya Agrawal
(Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose more than 1 percent in early trading on Wednesday, rebounding from steep losses a day earlier, after fresh intervention from China to support its markets helped ease a global equities selloff.
Wall Street closed sharply lower on Tuesday, with renewed concerns about China’s economy pushing major indexes down almost 3 percent and intensifying fears of a long-term selloff.
But Chinese stocks moved off steep losses to end almost flat on Wednesday after Chinese brokerages stepped up to buy shares, answering government calls to support the stock market and helping calm jittery investors.
Apple jumped 2.5 percent to $ 110.48 and gave the biggest boost to all the three major indexes.
At 9:54 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average was up 184.73 points, or 1.15 percent, at 16,243.08. The S&P 500 was up 19.64 points, or 1.03 percent, at 1,933.49 and the Nasdaq composite was up 47.75 points, or 1.03 percent, at 4,683.86.
All the 10 major S&P sectors were higher with the consumer discretionary index’s 1.38 percent rise leading the advancers.
Still, the S&P 500 is now 10 percent lower than its May record high, with the prospect of slowing global growth and an impending rate hike curtailing a robust bull run since the depths of the financial crisis.
Separately, ADP data showed U.S. private employers added 190,000 jobs in August, up from a revised 177,000 in July but short of economists expectations of 201,000.
The data comes ahead of Friday’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls data, the last monthly employment report before the U.S. Federal Reserve meets on Sept. 16-17. The Fed is widely expected to make an announcement on interest rates then.
“I don’t think this number means anything at all. I think it takes a huge miss for it to have any impact on the Fed’s decision to hike rates,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“That said, it is looking less likely that the Fed will raise rates in September given the recent market volatility.”
The Fed has said it will raise rates only when it sees a sustained economy recovery, with a key focus on jobs and inflation.
Data also showed new orders for U.S. factory goods rose for a second straight month in July on strong demand for automobiles, which could help support manufacturing against a strong dollar and softening global demand.
Ambarella’s shares were down 12.4 percent at $ 78 after the maker of chips for wearable and action cameras gave a third-quarter revenue forecast that largely fell short of estimates.
GoPro, Ambarella’s key customer, was down 8.2 percent at $ 39.94.
Navistar fell 7.1 percent to $ 16.12 after the engine maker said it could face enforcement from the U.S. SEC, and posted its 12th quarterly loss in a row.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,283 to 469. On the Nasdaq, 1,834 issues rose and 621 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed one new 52-week high and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 12 new lows.
(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
