S&P climbs 2% as Fed takes further steps

S&P climbs 2% as Fed takes further steps

U.S. stocks rebounded Thursday after recent steep losses as policymakers around the world took further emergency actions to try to help financial markets cope with deep coronavirus-driven economic damage.

Fred Katayama reports.

Stocks bounced back in a volatile session Thursday from the pounding they took the day before.

New measures taken by central banks in the U.S. and Europe to stave off a deep recession encouraged the buying.

Powered by rebounding energy and telecom stocks, the Nasdaq made the biggest gains among the major indexes, rising more than 2% Thomson Reuters Stocks Buzz analyst, Terence Gabriel: SOUNDBITE: TERENCE GABRIEL, ANALYST, STOCKS BUZZ, THOMSON REUTERS (ENGLISH) SAYING: "Today's action seems to be the market trying to find some sort of stability.

But it remains fragile.

And the question is whether or not it can sustain a turn up here when there is so much uncertainty about how this virus impact is ultimately going to play out on the economy." Investors got a glimpse of that economic impact Thursday.

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits surged to a 2-and-a-half year high last week as the pandemic drove companies in the services sector to lay off workers.

Separately, economists polled by Reuters put the odds of recession this year at 80% despite the Fed's moves and a $1 trillion economic stimulus plan put out by the White House.

Hotel operator Marriott, which reportedly has already begun to furlough what it expects will be tens of thousands of employees, pulled its 2020 financial outlook.

But its hard-hit shares rose.

Shares of Ford slid.

The automaker said it'll draw on credit lines to bolster its cash reserves so it can ride out the virus impact.

Energy shares rallied on a 25% spike in oil prices, the largest one-day gain on record.