Investing.com – Wall Street rebounded on Thursday from what had been its biggest sell-off in a year as political worries receded and positive economic data convinced some market players to put their feet back in the water and buy the dip.
At 11:31AM ET (15:31GMT), the Dow Jones gained 55 points, or 0.26%, the S&P 500 rose 9 points, or 0.37%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 42 points, or 0.70%.
The Dow and S&P recorded their worst day since September of last year on Wednesday with all the major indices erasing their gains for the month, but Thursday’s session saw buyers coming back to the boards even though political turmoil continued on Capitol Hill.
Reports surfaced that Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race.
That was only the latest worry in a tumultuous week at the White House, which included allegations that the president tried to interfere with a federal investigation and shared classified information with Russia's foreign minister.
The Justice Department on Wednesday appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to take over the investigation of Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.
Trump lost no time in responding to the action, calling the appointment of the special counsel “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” via his Twitter account.
U.S. stocks shook off the latest details with positive economic reports helping the recovery on Wall Street.
Weekly jobless claims gave yet another sign of the solid U.S. labor market with an unexpected drop to 232,000, beating estimates for a rise to 240,000.
The Philadelphia Fed survey for May also showed a solid reading as the index shot up to 38.8, almost doubling forecasts for a drop to 19.5.
Earnings news was mixed with Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) leading advancers on the Dow. The world’s largest retailer gained 2% after reporting an increase in store visits and online sales.
At the opposite end of the blue-chip index, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) tumbled more than 7% after the tech giant released a disappointing outlook.
Outside the Dow, L Brands (NYSE:LB) jumped 5% after the owner of Victoria’s Secret released solid profit and gave a strong forward guidance, but Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) dropped more than 1% as earnings missed estimates.
In M&A news, SiriusXM (NASDAQ:LSXMK) began talks to acquire Pandora (NYSE:P), sources told CNBC. Its shares rose around 6%.
Meanwhile, oil recovered from earlier losses on Thursday. Crude had fallen more than 1% earlier amid concern that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
However, variousreports from energy ministers that Russia had cut production by 300,000 barrels per day (bdp), that the total output cut deal’s compliance was 95% and that Saudi Arabia would had pledged to compensate for any breach were sufficient to convince investors to pile back into black gold.
Also supporting prices, Nigeria was reported to plan to cut production to 164,000 bdp in July from 203,000 in June.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.55% to $49.34 by 11:42AM ET (15:42GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.46% to $52.45.