U.S. Stocks Close Wednesday Up

(MENAFN) Wall Street closed sharply higher on Wednesday, driven by a broad-based rally in technology stocks as investors built on momentum from the previous session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 307.65 points, or 0.63%, settling at 49,482.15. The Nasdaq Composite surged 288.40 points, or 1.26%, to 23,152.08, while the S&P 500 advanced 56.06 points, or 0.81%, to close at 6,946.13. Market anxiety eased notably, with the Volatility Index (VIX) — widely referred to as the “fear index” — dropping 8.29% to 17.93.

Nvidia shares edged up 1.4% ahead of its closely watched quarterly earnings release after the closing bell, which was set to coincide with results from software heavyweights Salesforce and Snowflake. Oracle led software sector gains with a 1.2% advance as the group continued its recovery. AI-linked names including Palantir Technologies and Microsoft also moved higher.

Traders kept a wary eye on mounting geopolitical tensions between Washington and Tehran, even as sentiment remained broadly constructive.

On the policy front, President Donald Trump over the weekend threatened to raise global tariffs to 15%, though a 10% blanket import levy formally took effect Tuesday. In his State of the Union address that evening, Trump touted economic strength, unveiled a plan granting workers access to government-backed retirement accounts, and renewed his push to bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

Trump credited tariffs as the engine behind what he characterized as a historic economic resurgence, pointing to the Dow topping 50,000 ahead of schedule and the S&P 500 reaching 7,000. He acknowledged a Supreme Court ruling on tariffs as a setback but pledged the measures would remain through what he described as fully approved and tested alternative legal mechanisms.

The president also floated the longer-term vision that tariff revenues paid by foreign nations could, over time, substantially offset the modern income tax system, reducing the financial burden on American households — echoing similar claims he has made in the past.

Separately, housing finance data offered a bright spot: the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.09% last week, its lowest reading since September 2022, while total mortgage applications rose 0.4% for the week ending January 20.

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