The Nasdaq surged 302.86 points (1.6%) to 18,847.28, the S&P 500 shot up 92.93 points (1.6%) to 5,954.50 and the Dow jumped 601.41 points (1.4%) to 43,840.91. The markets dipped after a tense exchange between Trump, Zelenskyy, and VP Vance over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and the war. Trump suggested Ukraine might be left to fend for itself if no peace deal is reached. Buying interest then pushed the markets higher.
The Commerce Department report revealed that there was an increase in line with economist estimates of U.S. consumer price inflation in January.
Natural gas moved sharply higher despite a steep drop by the price of the commodity, resulting in a 2.1% spike by the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index. Banking stocks were substantially strong, as reflected by the 2.1% surge by the KBW Bank Index. Semiconductor, retail and utilities stocks also moved significantly higher while computer hardware stocks saw considerable weakness on the day. A steep drop by NetApp (NTAP) weighed on the computer hardware sector, with the data infrastructure company plunging by 15.6% after reporting weaker than expected fiscal third quarter revenues.
Asia-Pacific stocks moved sharply lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dove by 2.9%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plummeted by 3.3%. The major European markets moved to the upside over the course of the session while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6%, the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1% and the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line.
In the bond market, treasuries moved back to the upside following the pullback seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, slid 5.4 bps to a new two-month closing low of 4.23%.