Dow Jones gains 300 points supported by large banks, but ends off highs

Benchmark indices on Wall Street ended Thursday's trading session with gains, albeit off the session's highs, recovering some of the losses seen during Wednesday's sell-off, particularly in tech shares.

The Dow Jones gained close to 300 points. At one point, the index had risen close to 450 points towards the 49,600 mark. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained 0.25% each, after cooling off from the day's high.

Large banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs supported the Dow Jones on Thursday as both beat expectations for their respective quarterly results. Morgan Stanley's investment banking revenue shone, while Goldman Sachs registered a Wall Street record for equity-trading revenue in a quarter, which was also $700 million above street expectations.

Morgan Stanley ended the day with gains of 6%, while Goldman Sachs jumped nearly 5%. Both banking stocks ended at 52-week high levels.

The other highlight of Thursday's trade were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's results. The world's largest chip manufacturing company beat expectations with its profits growing on a year-on-year basis for the eighth quarter in a row. The company also boost its spending guidance to between $52 billion and $56 billion for 2026, from $40.9 billion in 2025.

Taiwan also reached a trade deal with the US under which the former will invest at least $250 billion in setting up chip production capacity in the US. In return, the reciprocal tariff rate on Taiwan has been brought down to 15% from 20% earlier. Components such as generic pharma, pharma ingredients, aircraft components and some natural resources will attract zero tariff as part of the deal.

Oil prices fell overnight after the US announced that it does not plan on attacking Iran yet after being assured that protestors in the Islamic nation will not be executed. Brent crude fell over 4%, the most since June, while NYMEX or the West Texas Intermediate fell below the $60 per barrel mark.

Profit booking from higher levels was also seen in Gold and Silver prices, with Silver also dropping over 4%, while Gold sliding below the $4,600 an ounce mark. The US Dollar index though, continues to strengthen, nearing the mark of 99.5.