Analysts said the rebound was not surprising, but cautioned that there were far too many unknowns in the situation concerning Omicron to expect an extended upside for equities.
“Investors may continue to be attracted to the dips but one thing is clear; rallies so far have been short-lived,” said Craig Erlam of online trading platform OANDA. “Perhaps they're hoping for positive news on the vaccine effectiveness against the new strain and taking advantage of these levels before it's too late. If they don't get the news they're hoping for, we could see another sharp move lower.”
US stocks were pummeled in two previous sessions, with the Dow losing a combined 3.2%, amid fears about the Omicron’s impact on the world and, especially, the United States after reports of the first American infected with the variant in California.
In Thursday’s session, however, Wall Street recovered ground. The Dow, which comprises mostly industrial stocks, rose 618 points, to close at 34,640.
The S&P 500 index, which groups the top 500 US stocks, finished up 64 points, or 1.4%, at 4,577. The S&P had lost about 3% in total over the past two sessions.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which lists Big Tech names such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, settled up 127 points, or 0.8%, at 15,381. Nasdaq lost almost 3.5% in the two previous sessions put together.