NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes jumped more than 1 percent on Tuesday, helped by strong gains for chip and transport stocks as investors took advantage of cheaper prices following a steep recent pullback for equities.
All 11 major S&P 500 sectors ended higher a day after a volatile session that pushed the benchmark S&P 500 lower and close to confirming its second correction of 2018.
“You have had such a pounding here in the month of October that at some point you would expect some bouncing to begin and hold,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
“You are starting to see maybe people wading into the waters with, ‘Time to buy some of these stocks.’ You saw that yesterday, but obviously it just didn’t hold,” Carlson said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 431.72 points, or 1.77 percent, to 24,874.64, the S&P 500 gained 41.38 points, or 1.57 percent, to 2,682.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 111.36 points, or 1.58 percent, to 7,161.65.
The Philadelphia semiconductor index jumped 4.2 percent, its biggest one-day percentage gain since March. Intel surged 5.2 percent and gave the biggest single-stock boost to the S&P 500.
Chip stocks also gained following a brokerage upgrade of Nvidia shares and a better-than-expected report from chip-gear maker KLA-Tencor. Nvidia shares jumped 9.4 percent and KLA-Tencor shares rose 7.6 percent.
Chip stocks had dropped broadly on Monday, as renewed concerns about U.S.-China trade tensions sparked declines.
The Dow Jones Transport Average jumped 2.8 percent, its biggest one-day rise in about a year. A drop in oil prices may have
