Wall Street rebounds as U.S. manufacturing expands in January

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – Wall Street main indexes rose 1% on Monday following their worst week in at least four months as Amazon (NASDAQ:) and Nike gained and U.S. factory activity showed a surprise rebound.

ISM data showed the manufacturing sector expanded in January after five straight months of contraction, offering hope that a prolonged slump in business investment has probably bottomed out.

Alphabet Inc (O:) gained 2.6% ahead of its quarterly results, which will wrap up earnings for the so-called FAANG group of stocks.

A 4.1% rise in Nike Inc’s (N:) shares after JP Morgan added the footwear maker to their focus list provided the biggest boost to the Dow Industrials ().

The consumer discretionary index () gained 1.6%, the most among the 11 major S&P indexes.

Also helping the mood was steps by China’s central bank to improve liquidity and relieve pressure on its economy from the impact of the coronavirus epidemic.

Fears surrounding the economic impact of the outbreak, which has been declared as a global emergency, had shaved off more than 600 points from the Dow Jones Industrials () and pushed the benchmark S&P 500 () into the red for the year on Friday.

“People are just looking at this as an opportunity to step in and do a little bit of buying,” said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist and senior portfolio manager at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.

“The coronavirus concerns are still at the forefront of investors’ minds.”

At 10:16 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average () was up 319.06 points, or 1.13%, at 28,575.09, the S&P 500 () was up 35.54 points, or 1.10%, at 3,261.06. The Nasdaq Composite () was up 131.46 points, or 1.44%, at 9,282.40.

Gilead Sciences Inc’s shares (O:) jumped 4.5% after the drugmaker said it has provided its experimental Ebola therapy for use in a small number of patients affected by the coronavirus in China.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.20-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.66-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 36 new lows.

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