After a day of selloffs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged over 500 points in the afternoon on Thursday, driven by strong performances from tech giants such as IBM and Salesforce. However, the gains were short-lived, as the Dow and other indexes declined once again.
As the day ended, the Dow was up 81 points, or 0.2%, reaching 39, 935. The Nasdaq, which experienced its worst day of the year yesterday, slightly rebounded during the day but ultimately closed with a 0.9% drop. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 saw a 0.5% decrease.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes that the tech companies’ shares won’t stay down for long.
“The tech sell-off yesterday was a brutal one and has clearly created white knuckles on the Street after a meteoric rise in tech stocks over the last 18 months,” Ives said in a note to investors Thursday. “Ironically, the Alphabet and Tesla results which sparked this sell-off further confirmed the massive cloud and AI build outs which we believe are fueling the 4th Industrial Revolution in front of our eyes.”
Tesla stock rebounds, while Ford and Stellantis drop
Shares of Tesla, which experienced a significant drop on Wednesday, made a recovery today with a nearly 2% jump. Other automaker stocks, such as Ford Motor Co. and Jeep-maker Stellantis, plummeted by 18.3% and 7.7%, respectively, following their weak earnings.
Ford said Wednesday that its net income fell to $1.83 billion from $1.92 billion a year earlier, explaining that it put aside more cash to cover the cost of repairing customers’ vehicles under warranty, which affected profits. The Detroit automaker is well known for its history of quality-control issues and has already issued 37 recalls in 2024, according to federal data. Ford was the leader in recalls for 2023 and recorded $1.9 billion in excess warranty costs.
Stellantis, which owns brands including Dodge, Chrysler, and Alfa Romeo, took a 48% hit to net profits over the first six months of 2024, reporting net profits of $6 billion (€5.6 billion). The Netherlands-based company cited costs from its restructuring plans and lower shares of foreign markets, namely North America. Adjusted operating income for the period came in at $9.2 billion (€8.5 billion), down from $15 billion (€14 billion) a year earlier.
–Laura Bratton and William Gavin contributed to this article
