The up-and-down nature of the coronavirus-era stock market was on display Wednesday, as shares of Bay Area stalwarts such as Facebook, Apple and Tesla turned north in a rally attempting to recoup at least some of the week's earlier big losses.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell more than 1,200 points between Monday and Tuesday, rallied by 405 points to reach 23,424.38 on Wednesday as oil prices rose following two days of historic declines. The S&P 500 was up by 2%, at 2,790.72, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 2.3%, to 8,455.47.
Facebook climbed by 5%, to $179.24 a share, after the company said late Tuesday it is investing $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of the largest telecom company in India. Separately, on Tuesday, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit against Facebook over the company's policy on disclosing who is paying for political ads on the social media platform.
Apple shares rose by 2%, to $273.92 on the heels of upbeat reviews of its new iPhone SE, which goes on sale on Friday. Tesla was up by 2.2%, at $701.83 a share, while semiconductor giant Intel rose more than 5%, to $59.22 a share, ahead of its upcoming quarterly results, due after the close of trading on Thursday.
Gains also came from AMD, Nvidia, Twitter, Cisco Systems and HP.
However, Netflix shares fell by 3%, to $419.93, despite the streaming TV leader saying on Tuesday that it added almost 16 million new subscribers during the first three months of the year, as people worldwide stayed home due to shelter-in-place policies meant to help stem the spread of coronavirus. But, while Netflix said its finances were solid, it also said it would seek to raise $1 billion in debt in order to help finance its program production plans and other business efforts.
