By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Nasdaq notched its best day in more than four months on Wednesday, as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla clawed back some of their recent losses after traders snapped up beaten-down tech stalwarts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.60%, or 439 points. The S&P 500 was up 2.02%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.71% to notch its best day since Apr. 29.
The sea of red that has washed over tech for the three-straight trading sessions turned green, with Apple rising more than 5% as investors resumed their bullish bets on the tech giant ahead of its new iPhone launch widely expected later this year.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) were also up, with the latter rising more than 4% despite reports suggesting its proposed deal to buy TikTok is in jeopardy.
TikTok parent Bytedance is reportedly in talks with U.S. government to discuss the possibility of avoiding a sale ahead of Trump-administration imposed Sept. 15 deadline, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was also lifted by an 11% surge in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), a day after the electric automaker slumped 20% after it failed to make the cut to be included in the S&P 500 despite generating four consecutive quarters of growth.
But Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK) sidestepped the rally in tech, plunging 1%4, as its better-than-expected second-quarter results were offset by signs of slowing growth in billings.
"Slack's billings miss … will be a shock to the bulls anticipating a clean beat," Wedbush said. "It appears elevated churn and overall macro softness impacted the company's results."
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also contributed to the rebound, rising 2.9%, led by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM).
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) fell 7.5% as investors overlooked the company's better-than-expected quarterly results.
Airlines also struggled, paced by a nearly 3% decline in United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL) after the carrier trimmed its third-quarter guidance on capacity and passenger revenue.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) fell 4%, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) down more than 2% and 3% respectively.
On the economic front, U.S. job openings rose 10%, or 5.8 million in July, though that was down from almost 7 million seen in June.
The signs of a slowdown in hiring kept up concerns about the pace of recovery at a time when parts reopening measures appear to be gathering steam once again.
On Sept. 30, restaurants in New York City will resume indoor dining, but with capacity capped at 25%, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.