. Technicians said a break above this key level could open the door next week to a push towards resistance in the upper 4,300s in the form of mid-April lows and the 50-Day Moving Average .
Amid the outperformance in big tech, the Nasdaq 100 was last trading just shy of 4.0% higher near 13,500, which would mark the indices best one-day performance of the year. The Dow, meanwhile, was last trading a respectable 2.0% higher near 34,000. USwere unfazed by data that showed a surprise contraction in US GDP in Q1, which analysts explained away as a temporary weakness as a result of elevated imports and due to rampant Covid-19 infections at the time.
Indeed, while Thursday’s strong rebound does lighten the mood a little for US equity investors, its still been a torrid month. The S&P 500 is currently on course to post a more than 5.0% drop, similar in scale to January’s decline. The Nasdaq 100 index, meanwhile, is on course to post a slightly more than 9.0% decline, which would mark the worst one-month drop since 2008 and leaves the index flirting once again with “bear market” territory .
A combination of bearish factors including nerves about aggressive monetary tightening from the Fed, a global growth slowdown, prolonged inflation, geopolitics and China lockdown risk have all been cited as weighing on the market this month.