LONDON: U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, off session highs as a bounce in oil and major stocks failed to completely offset increased uncertainty heading into the Federal Reserve’s key meeting next week.
“I think a lot of this is volatility awaiting the Fed meeting,” said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. “There’s some good leadership in the market along with Apple and that’s always comforting to traders.”
The Dow Jones industrial average closed about 80 points higher after gaining as much as 188 points with Apple and UnitedHealth the greatest drivers. The Nasdaq outperformed, briefly gaining more than 1.2 percent, boosted by biotechs and Apple.
“There’s still continued lack of conviction and any real liquidity,” said Myles Clouston, senior director at Nasdaq. “Investors have been spooked by what’s happened in the last month, month-and-a-half.”
Apple closed up 2.4 percent, recovering losses of 1.92 percent from Wednesday when it unveiled new iPhones, the iPad Pro and other products. The iShares Nasdaq biotechnology ETF (IBB) briefly jumped more than 2 percent.
“You have a rally in metals, a rally in oil, and here we (were) at the highs of the day,” Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, said of the intraday rally.
