STOCKS MAKE HUGE COMEBACK: Here's What You Need To Know

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cme s&P 500 futures trader

REUTERS/Sue Ogrocki

A trader pauses amidst the activity in the S&P 500 pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, October 26, 1998

Today's positive close belies a huge swing we saw in the high-growth tech stocks. The Dow was down by as much as 110 points before coming back.

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First, the scoreboard:

  • Dow: 16,256.3 (+83.0, +0.5%)
  • S&P 500: 1,842.4 (+11.9, +0.6%)
  • Nasdaq: 4,033.7, (+10.9, +0.2%)

And now the top stories:

  • The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down by as much as 2.1% before recovering its losses. Among the laggards were the dotcom stocks like GrubHub, King Digital, Zynga, Facebook, and Yelp. First Solar and Netflix also underperformed. This appears to be the continuation of the "internal correction," which is seeing investor rotate out of high-priced, growth stocks and into cheaply-priced, value stocks.
  • Inflation unexpectedly accelerated in March. According to the BLS, the consumer price index climbed by 0.2% month-over-month, which was ahead of the 0.1% expected. "The headline index was boosted by a 0.4% advance in food prices from the previous month in March despite a 0.1% drop in energy prices," observed BI's Matthew Boesler. "The core index was bolstered by housing prices, which make up about 40% of all consumer prices, rising 2.8% from a year earlier - the fastest yearly gain since March 2008."
  • The NAHB's homebuilder sentiment index climbed to just 47 in April from 46 in March. Economists were looking for a reading of 49. "Job growth is proceeding at a solid pace, mortgage interest rates remain historically low and home prices are affordable," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "While these factors point to a gradual improvement in housing demand, headwinds that are holding up a more robust recovery include ongoing tight credit conditions for home buyers and the fact that builders in many markets are facing a limited availability of lots and labor."
  • The latest Empire State Manufacturing survey, The headline activity index unexpectedly fell to 1.29 in April from 5.61 in March.
  • Yahoo announces Q1 earnings after the closing bell. Follow the results live on Business Insider.com.
  • Don't Miss: How 9 Countries Saw Inflation Explode Into Hyperinflation »