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1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks rebound strongly as rate hike fear eases

Xinhua, March 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks bounced back on Thursday after a sharp decline in the past two days, as disappointing monthly retail sales soothed investor anxieties over the rate hike.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 259.83 points, or 1.47 percent, to 17,895.22. The S&P 500 surged 25.71 points, or 1.26 percent, to 2,065.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 43.35 points, or 0.89 percent, to 4,893.29.

U.S. February retail sales data came out surprisingly weak, which gave investors some relief that the Fed may not begin raising interest rates as early as anticipated.

Retail trade sales for February were down 0.6 percent from January, well below market expectations of a 0.3-percent gain, the U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday.

"Sales weakness was led by a 2.5 percent drop in vehicle and parts spending, which contributes 20 percent to the index. It is hard to put a positive spin on such a bad report," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, in the week ended March 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 289,000, down 36, 000 from the previous week's revised level, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

Investor sentiment was also buoyed by soft U.S. dollar. The dollar on Thursday went down against most major currencies on the weak retail sales. The greenback climbed to a 12-year high against the euro on Wednesday.

On corporate news, shares of Intel plunged 4.73 percent to 30. 80 dollars apiece after the tech giant announced that its first- quarter revenue is expected to fall short of the company's previous outlook due to weaker-than-expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower-than-expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain. Endite