LONDON: U.S. stocks rallied into the close Wednesday, driven by gains in consumer discretionary, materials and health-care sectors. But the main indexes still ended the month and a quarter with steep losses.
Trading on Wall Street was volatile while volumes were thinner than usual, with some of market watchers questioning the strength of the rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished capped the session with a rare third consecutive quarterly decline, while the S&P 500 booked losses for the second straight quarter.
The S&P 500 SPX, +1.91% gained 35.94 points, or 1.9%, to 1,920.03. Wednesday’s gains were fueled by a spike in health-care stocks, specifically in biotechnology companies, that have been beaten down over the past few weeks. Consumer discretionary, technology, energy and material also rallied more than 2%.
The benchmark stock index lost 2.6% over the month and dropped 6.9% over the past quarter, driven by fears over global growth. Year to date, the S&P 500 saw a 6.7% drop and was nearly 10% below its peak in May.
Sectors that are sensitive to economic growth suffered the most. Materials were down 17% and energy sectors fell 18% for the quarter due to a commodity slump.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 health-care sector stepped into correction territory—considered a drop of at least 10% from a recent peak—falling 11% over the quarter.
