Wall Street looks for direction as giants recover from a volatile session

Jul 21 (Reuters) – Major U.S. stocks rallied on shaky trading on Friday as large-cap and growth tech stocks rebounded from sharp declines from the previous session.

“As opposed to the focus on tech, communications services and consumer products, we’re starting to see some investors taking a liking to energy, financial and health stocks,” said Art Hogan of B Riley Wealth.

According to Hogan, the focus on growth stocks has led the Nasdaq to gain about 34.7% this year, which was also driven by optimism about artificial intelligence, a fairly resilient US economy and expectations that the US Federal Reserve’s cycle of aggressive rate hikes will come to an end.

While the Fed is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points at its July 25-26 meeting, market participants are ambivalent about the Fed’s next move.

The Dow Jones rose 0.14% to 35,275.89 at 5:25 p.m. Moscow time, the S&P 500 index rose 0.15% to 4,541.63 points, and the Nasdaq gained slightly to hold near 14,065.76 points.

The expiration of monthly options on Friday is expected to increase market volatility during the session, analysts said.

American Express shares fell 4.5% after the credit card titan alerted investors by keeping its full-year earnings forecast unchanged.

SLB fell 2.17% as profits from a leading oilfield services company fell short of expectations due to lower drilling activity in North America.

Traders are also expecting a special rebalancing of the Nasdaq 100 multi-billion dollar index on Friday after trading closes.

The original message in English is available at the code: (Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Johann M Cherian in Bangalore)