Technology companies led stocks higher on Wall Street Tuesday as investors focused on how and when authorities may begin to ease business shutdowns and limits on people’s movements imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Big companies also started reporting their first-quarter earnings, giving investors an early peek into how the outbreak was affecting them, the AP reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 558.99 points, or 2.4%, to 23,949.76. The S&P 500 index climbed 3.1%, erasing its losses from a day earlier. The technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 3.9%, aided by strong gains in Microsoft, Apple, and several chipmakers.
The broad rally came amid new signs that government officials are considering how to gradually reopen the economy. President Trump has been discussing with senior aides how to roll back federal social distancing recommendations that expire at the end of the month. And governors around the US have begun collaborating on plans to reopen their economies in what is likely to be a drawn-out, step-by-step process to prevent the coronavirus from rebounding. "Wall Street is encouraged simply by the conversation of a reopening of the economy," says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
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