The technology sector .SPLRCT was up 0.38 percent, one of the six gainers among the 10 major S&P 500 indexes.
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US wholesale prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-producer-prices-flat-in-august-2016-09-15) were flat in August, mostly because of sharp declines in the cost of food and gasoline.
Speculation about the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate hike has shaken major stock indexes following contrasting comments from Fed officials.
“The S&P 500 was right at a support level this morning at 2,120 and passing above that created a momentum for the rally.” said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade.
Outdoor apparel maker V.C. Corp., which owns Timberland and North Face, dropped 3 per cent Thursday, the biggest fall in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
Investors got a blast of economic data, including a bigger-than-expected drop in retail sales and industrial output for August, which pointed at some weakness in the USA economy.
“That mindset is causing back and forth swings in the past few days”.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average YMZ6, +0.16% rose 36 points, or 0.2%, to 18,045, while those for the S&P 500 index ESZ6, +0.20% climbed 5.55 points, or 0.3%, to 2,127.75.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 32.77 points, or 0.64 percent, at 5,188.03.
Technology and energy stocks are leading midday gains on Wall Street.
Department store chain Macy’s (M.N) rose 2.4 percent after Citigroup upgraded the stock, while Coach (COH.N) dropped 2.6 percent on a Morgan Stanley rating cut.
“There are also opportunistic traders out there, short-covering and bargain hunting with the mindset to trade shorter-term and that’s what is causing those sharp moves”, Bakhos said. On the Nasdaq, 1,932 issues rose and 787 fell.
Vitae Pharmaceuticals shares more than doubled to $20.95 after Allergan said it would buy the company for $639 million. Allergan rose 1.4 percent.
Sarepta (SRPT.O) surged 15.2 percent to $29.48 after Oppenheimer said a key critic of company’s muscle disorder drug has left the FDA.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.11-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.03-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
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In extended trading, Oracle fell 1 percent after the software seller posted its quarterly results.
