After Rough Quarter, Investors Buckle Up

The health care sector bounced back from a plunge a day earlier.

Investors are bracing for more large price swings across stocks, bonds and commodities heading into a month that is associated with market tumult.

Following the jobs report on Friday, traders said the next catalyst for stocks will be third-quarter earnings, which are set to begin in earnest in mid-October.

“A striking feature of the recent correction in global equities has been the accompanying deterioration in sentiment toward the asset class”, analysts at Barclays said in their quarterly outlook this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 235.57 points (1.47 percent) to 16,284.70, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 35.94 (1.91 percent) to 1,920.03. The S&P 500 gained 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.3%.

The S&P 500 index is down 174.81 points, or 8.5 percent.

Biotechnology stocks halted a selloff that sent the former high-fliers into a bear market.

The sectors that lost the most over the past three months were a few of the best performers on Wednesday.

As policy makers closely watch the strength of labour markets for potential cues on when to raise rates, a report today showed companies stepped up hiring in September, indicating the job market is standing firm in the face of weaker global demand. Economists expect a 200,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls and estimate that the unemployment rate held at 5.1%.

The economic indicator is widely used as a pre-indicator for the US labor market ahead of Friday’s highly anticipated jobs report. Policymakers have said they will likely raise rates before the end of the year. Energy companies and raw material suppliers, the biggest losers in the quarter, rose more than 2 per cent each.

LIFT AT LAUREN: Ralph Lauren jumped $11.87, or 11.4 percent, to $115.92 after the company named a new CEO to replace its founder.

The shares finished 15.1 per cent higher after the debt-laden Swiss company insisted its business was “operationally and financially robust”.

Indexes in Asia and <strong>Europestrong> also posted strong gains.

The losses over the past three months dragged major stock indexes solidly into negative territory for the year.

China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 per cent on Wednesday. Its quarterly decline of 29% is the largest since the first quarter of 2008.

Many money managers have reduced their holdings of stocks during the market gyrations.

But analysts said the relief could be temporary, and that numerous concerns that plagued markets in Q3, such as the slowing Chinese economy, have yet to be resolved. Alcoa shares were up 52 cents, or 5.7%, to $9.59 in pre-market trading, but its shares closed last night down almost 50% from its 52-week high. The dollar added a fraction against the yen to ¥ 119.90.

ENERGY: Benchmark crude rose 21 cents at $45.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

CURRENCIES: The euro weakened to $1.1166.

Tommy Stubbington contributed to this article.