Stocks Get Late Boost as Volume Jumps to 2025 High: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — A rally in several tech giants spurred a late-day rebound in US stocks, following a selloff driven by disappointing outlooks from bellwethers across various industries.

Just five minutes before Wall Street’s close, the S&P 500 erased a slide that earlier topped 1%. A massive expiration of options added an extra dose of volatility, with over 21 billion shares changing hands on US exchanges – the most in 2025. Tesla Inc. led gains in megacaps, though Nvidia Corp. fell. Boeing Co. jumped on a contract to build the US’s next-generation fighter jet. Forecasts from FedEx Corp., Nike Inc. and Lennar Corp. underwhelmed traders.

Trillions of dollars have been shaved from US equity values in the past month as concerns over an economic slowdown, the impact of tariffs, geopolitical risks and questions about lofty tech valuations have unnerved investors.

A volatile stretch that’s plagued Wall Street in 2025 is likely to persist until at least the second half of the year, according to Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson. 

“This is going to be a rolling recovery is my best guess,” Wilson said this week in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We think new highs are probably out of the question in the first half of this year.”

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed. The Nasdaq 100 gained 0.4%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 4.25%. The dollar added 0.3%.

Trend-following systematic funds turned net short on US stocks for the first time in more than a year. 

These commodity trading advisers — which take their cues from the market direction rather than fundamental factors — cut their exposure to the S&P 500 to the lowest level since 2023, data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk show.

Meantime, individual traders pumped more than $12 billion into US equities in the week ending March 19, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Market watchers keep a close eye on mom-and-pop investors as they are often the last to cut their exposure to stocks, with the latest bout of aggressive buying potentially suggesting that equities haven’t found the bottom yet.

Investors are dismissing the risks that a full-fledged trade war would pose to stocks as “monster” flows of capital keep pouring into global equity markets, Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett said. 

The fact that inflows into stocks have reached a year-to-date peak and that indexes in Germany and China — two top exporters to the US — have rallied since the election of Donald Trump suggests investors are skeptical that US tariffs will cause a recession.

What Spooked the S&P 500? It Wasn’t the Trade War: Nir Kaissar

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
• The MSCI World Index was little changed

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
• The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0817
• The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2918
• The Japanese yen fell 0.4% to 149.32 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $83,911.48
• Ether fell 0.3% to $1,973.74

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.25%
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.77%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced seven basis points to 4.71%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $68.22 a barrel
• Spot gold fell 0.8% to $3,020.28 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Lu Wang, Sujata Rao and Margaryta Kirakosian.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.