By Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal
Aug 19 (Reuters) - The main U.S. stock indexes recovered on Wednesday after a technology-driven slump in the previous session as government bond yields retreated from multi-decade highs and investors assessed a slew of corporate updates.
Vaccine-maker Moderna's shares more than doubled after its personalized mRNA cancer therapy developed with Merck cut the risk of melanoma recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial.
Merck jumped 9.6%, lifting the blue-chip Dow.
Biotech
peers also gained: Novavax was up 6.8% while U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech rallied 17.5%. The S&P 500 healthcare sector rose 2.7% to hit a record high and was the biggest gainer on the benchmark index.
Marvell Technologies surged about 9% after the chipmaker issued Alphabet's Google a warrant to buy a stake worth about $12.18 billion.
Broadcom declined more than 4% after the deal, weighing on the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index 0.7%. Tech stocks on the benchmark S&P 500 declined 0.4%, limiting market gains.
Heavyweight tech stocks came under sharp selling pressure on Tuesday as government yields hit multi-decade highs on concerns over ballooning government debt and geopolitics that battered the bond market.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond retreated from its highest level since 2007 after the U.S. Treasury announced it would double the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated bonds, boosting risk appetite. It was last at 5.209%.
"Most tech companies are priced mainly on forward earnings expectations and when interest rates creep up, those expectations are worth less and the stocks are worth less," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
At 09:36 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119.94 points, or 0.22%, to 53,463.34, the S&P 500 gained 28.48 points, or 0.37%, to 7,720.24 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 67.17 points, or 0.26%, to 26,356.89.
Investors also scrutinized quarterly earnings from retailers for insight into the health of the U.S. consumer.
Target was up 3.3% after raising its annual sales forecast, while Lowe's gained 1.8% despite trimming its annual sales growth forecast.
Estee Lauder jumped more than 14% after the cosmetics maker forecast annual profit above Wall Street estimates.
Retail bellwether Walmart is due to report quarterly earnings on Thursday.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said no talks were taking place with Iran and insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open, contradicting Iran's assertion that the strait remained shut to shipping.
Brent crude futures added 0.2% to hit near three-week highs.
Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July meeting later in the day will be parsed for a clearer picture of the central bank's policy outlook.
Traders currently see at least one 25-basis-point rate hike from the Fed by the end of 2026, according to data compiled by LSEG. The odds of a hike as soon as September, however, have decreased significantly following last week's tame inflation data.
Robust earnings from several sectors including some AI hyperscalers lifted the S&P 500 and the Dow to record highs earlier this month, but doubts lingered about whether hefty AI spending can yield tangible results soon.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.97-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.35-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 60 new highs and 29 new lows.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Purvi Agawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
