Investing.com - Stocks surged Wednesday as a rally in Facebook lifted tech stocks, though the major averages still posted sharp monthly losses, bloodied by a selloff in October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.97%, but is down about 4% for month. The S&P 500 rose 1.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.01%. The S&P 500 has lost about 6% in October and the Nasdaq is down about 8%, its largest monthly slump since November 2008.
Wall Street closed the curtain on October in bullish form as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)'s stronger-than-expected earnings overshadowed a slight revenue miss and slowing user growth, sending its shares more than 4% higher, lifting the broader tech sector.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose more than 4%, while Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose 4%. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 3% as investors looked ahead to the iPhone maker's quarterly report slated for Thursday after market close.
Both the S&P 500 Information Technology index and the S&P 500 Communication Services index, which includes Netflix, Facebook and Alphabet and telecom companies, closed more than 2% higher.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) also fuelled the rally on Wall Street after it posted a blowout quarterly report and showed strong growth in China despite slowing growth in the country, prompting a wave of bullish calls from analysts. Its shares rose about 9%.
"The fact that General Motors China turned in a record third-quarter is also encouraging because it shows that General Motors can earn solid profits in a variety of economic scenarios in that country," JPMorgan said.
Energy, meanwhile, also participated in the rally, gaining nearly 1%, shrugging off slump in oil prices. Oil prices posted their biggest monthly loss in 2-1/2 years.
On the trade front, President Donald Trump's top economic advisor attempted to temper fears of an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war, railing against recent reports that the U.S. was looking to implement further tariffs on China.
"Nothing is set in stone right now," Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Wednesday.
The U.S. has slapped tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, about half the value of U.S. imports from the country. China has retaliated with tariffs on $110 billion worth of American exports.
Ahead of the all-important October nonfarm payrolls report due Friday, market participants were treated to a better-than-expected report on the private labor market.
Private payrolls grew by 227,000 for the month, above the 218,000 seen in September, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP and Moody's Analytics. That beat economists’ forecasts of 189,000.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Molson Coors Brewing (NYSE:TAP), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Fleetcor Technologies (NYSE:FLT) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Baxter International (NYSE:BAX), Kellogg (NYSE:K) and IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.