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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street Wednesday as investors are tempted by lower prices a day after the S&P 500 hit its lowest level in more than a year. The benchmark index rose 1.5% in the early going, a day after sinking 3.2%. Big technology stocks, which have been swinging sharply both up and down recently, were back in the green. That helped push the Nasdaq composite up 2%. Apple and Microsoft each rose. High-end exercise bike maker Peloton dropped 17% after reporting much worse results than analysts were expecting. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.97%
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were each 0.7% higher.
Investors anxious about recent and potential future rate hikes and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have sent markets spiraling in recent months.
On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 3.2% and finished down 16.8% from its Jan. 3 record. The Dow fell 2% while the Nasdaq composite slid 4.3%.
Most Asian stock markets followed the U.S. lower overnight, while Europe trended higher in midday trading Tuesday.
The Federal Reserve is trying to cool inflation that is running at a four-decade high, but investors worry that might trigger a U.S. downturn. That adds to pressure from Russia’s war on Ukraine and a slowing Chinese economy.
Traders are pricing in the “impending deterioration of economic conditions,” said Yeap Jun Rong of IG in a report.
U.S. stocks have declined as the Fed turns away from a strategy of pumping money into the financial system, which boosted prices.
The U.S. central bank has raised its key rate from close to zero, where it sat for much of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, it indicated it will double the size of future increases from its usual margin.
Shares in the interactive exercise company Peloton tumbled 24% in premarket trading as the former pandemic darling of investors reported another quarter of lackluster earnings. The company's shares, now trading for around $10 each, have lost more than 90% of their value since Christmas of 2020.
Biohaven shares jumped more than 70% in premarket trading after Pfizer said it would pay $11.6 billion for the remaining portion of the migraine treatment maker it does not already own.
At midday in Europe, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.5%, Frankfurt's DAX added 1.1% and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.6%.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.6% to 26,167.10 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.8% to 19,633.69.
The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.1% to 3,035.84 after the Chinese government told local authorities to help small businesses pay rent and other expenses in a new effort to boost anemic economic growth.
The Kospi in Seoul shed 0.6% to 2,596.56 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 declined 1% to 7,051.20.
India's Sensex advanced 0.3% to 54,623.12. New Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta retreated while Bangkok gained.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude slipped $1.49 to $101.60 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had plunged $6.68 to $103.09 on Monday. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, fell $1.66 to $104.28 per barrel in London. It fell $6.45 the previous session to $105.94.
The dollar declined to 129.98 yen from Monday's 130.32 yen. The euro edged lower to $1.0563 from $1.0566.