US stocks rebound after recent trade-driven selloff

Major US equity indices opened higher on Wednesday and attempted to recover a part of recent losses led by escalating US-China trade tensions.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was seen leading the way up, trading at new all-time highs, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average looking to snap six consecutive days of losses that marked its longest losing streak since March 2017.

The uptick, however, lacked any major fundamental trigger and could be attributed to some bargain hunting, especially after a lengthy stretch of weakness and Tuesday’s meltdown amid worries over a full-blown US-China trade war.

The US President Donald Trump dialled up the trade conflict with China and asked his administration to identify $200 billion in imported goods from China to be penalized with additional tariffs of 10%.  Trump also threatened to find $200 billion more worth of goods if China tried to retaliate against those additional tariffs.

Trade-related development/news, which has been acting as a major headwind for global markets for months, will likely continue being a primary driver of the investors’ sentiment towards perceived riskier assets – like equities.

At the time of writing this report, DJIA was up around 35-points to 24,736, while the broader S&P 500 Index added over 8-points to 2,770 and Nasdaq spiked 50-points to 7,776.