US stocks survive barrages as sell-off low becomes rally start

By Joseph Ciolli and Kate Garber
Updated October 3 2015 - 9:08am, first published 8:57am

While everything from Glencore to the Labor Department threw punches at US stocks this week, nothing landed the knockout blow.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended the week with a gain of 1 per cent, rebounding from a loss of more than 2.5 per cent on Monday after Glencore roiled global markets and a 1.6 per cent retreat on Friday following a monthly US employment report. Industries from biotechnology to raw materials bounced back after reaching lows for the year.

Investors fought back after stocks tumbled toward the lows of August's selloff, when the S&P 500 entered its first correction in four years.

On Friday, indexes jumped over 1 per cent as worries about the economy after the jobs report gave way to a robust rally in energy and materials stocks. The three major indexes clawed back losses of more than 1.5 per cent. While the poor payroll data hinted at economic weakness, it also strengthened the argument for the Federal Reserve to delay its long-awaited interest rate hike.

 

"A lot of the nervous money has already left the market," said Walter "Bucky" Hellwig, who helps manage $US17 billion as a senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. "If there was any day you could make the case for the market going down, it's on the Friday of a weak employment report, but the market stabilised and that's encouraging."

US equities have seesawed between gains and losses since August's selloff, as investors wrestle with concerns about a slowing global economy and confusion over the Fed' plans for higher interest rates. The two issues have haunted financial markets for months, resulting in the worst quarterly performance for global equities in four years.

Jobs report

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