Wall St ticks up as chips rebound, Middle East in focus

By Joel Jose and Twesha Dikshit

Wall Street's major indexes inched higher on Thursday, as investors sought bargains in beaten-down technology stocks and kept a close watch on developments around the Middle East conflict.

Chipmakers bounced back after Wednesday's selloff sent major Wall Street indexes down more than 1% and technology stocks into correction territory, a 10% drop from their record close.

Intel soared 10%, while Nvidia and Micron Technology were up 1.3% and 2.4%, respectively. The S&P 500 technology index 1.4%, while the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index advanced 4.5%.

Oracle shares plunged 12.5% after the company projected capital spending plans for fiscal 2027 above Wall Street estimates. Software shares came under pressure, down 2.2%.

Applovin and Atlassian fell about 3% each, while Servicenow, Salesforce and Adobe were down between 2.2% and 3%.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would hit Iran "very hard tonight" and soon take control of the Middle Eastern country's oil and gas infrastructure and markets. Oil prices edged higher. [O/R]

"That's (Trump's warning) a pretty worrisome thought for the market but what we're seeing here is a market that may have been grossly oversold over the past few days. And so that's why we're seeing some sort of a bump," said Phil Blancato, chief market strategist at Osaic Wealth.

At 09:56 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 450.39 points, or 0.90%, to 50,371.57, the S&P 500 gained 58.67 points, or 0.81%, to 7,325.66 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 267.93 points, or 1.07%, to 25,437.44.

The S&P 500 has dropped about 4% since hitting a record closing high in early June as investors grapple with concerns about stretched tech valuations and tighter monetary policy, with the Middle East conflict stoking inflationary pressures.

Ten out of 11 major S&P 500 sectors were in the green, with industrial shares leading gains.

Communication services dropped 1.5%, as Alphabet and Meta declined almost 2% each.

Data showed U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in May, leading to the largest annual gain in over three years.

Separately, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased marginally last week.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady at its policy meeting next week, with investors pricing in at least one 25 basis point rate hike by the end of the year.

The highly anticipated Friday market debut of Elon Musk's SpaceX, set to be valued at $1.75 trillion, could also test the rally this year that has repeatedly lifted stocks to record levels.

Meanwhile, the World Bank cut its global growth forecast for 2026 citing the Middle East war, saying growth could slow to just 1.3% if energy supply disruptions prove more severe and come with substantial stress in financial markets.

Among other movers, Navan jumped 16.5% after the corporate travel booking agency raised its full-year forecasts for revenue and operating income on Wednesday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.27-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.11-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 7 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 86 new highs and 86 new lows.

(Reporting by Joel Jose and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Devika Syamnath)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 9:02 AM.