US stocks extended a rally to a fourth day on Wednesday, as strong earnings reports from Alphabet and chipmaker AMD lifted the technology sector after a bruising start to the year.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index advanced 0.9 per cent, with a handful of big-name tech stocks driving the gains.
The index dropped more than 5 per cent in January, its worst start to the year since the financial crisis, amid rising concerns about the effect of higher interest rates, slowing growth and geopolitical tensions. However, Wednesday marked the fourth consecutive day of gains and brought its increase since the start of trading on Friday to 6 per cent.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5 per cent on Wednesday.
Alphabet followed fellow tech titans Microsoft and Apple to post forecast-beating quarterly results after the markets closed on Tuesday, sending shares of Google’s parent company up 8 per cent.
AMD rose 5.1 per cent after a positive trading update that also lifted shares in chipmaker peers such as Nvidia and Qualcomm.
PayPal, however, was an exception to the positive trends across the tech sector. Shares in the company fell just under 25 per cent to hit their lowest level in nearly two years, after the online payments group issued lower full-year revenue guidance than analysts had expected.
Fast-growing tech businesses had been particularly badly hit by the recent market sell-off, as rising interest rates reduce the value that investors put on future earnings.
However, the largest and most profitable companies have remained popular with some investors.
Read more on the day’s market moves here
