Wall St. Steadies on Big Tech, Oil     01/15 09:37

   Wall Street is steadying on Thursday as tech stocks bounce back following an 
encouraging report from a Taiwanese chip giant and as oil prices ease sharply.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street is steadying on Thursday as tech stocks bounce 
back following an encouraging report from a Taiwanese chip giant and as oil 
prices ease sharply.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was on track to break the two-day losing streak 
it's been on since setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 
was up 140 points, or 0.3% after the first few minutes of trading, and the 
Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.

   Nvidia and other formerly high-flying tech stocks helped lift the market 
after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major supplier to the industry, 
reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TSMC 
also said it could boost its investment in equipment to $56 billion this year 
to take advantage of the boom in artificial intelligence.

   The frenzy around AI has already sent Nvidia and other superstar stocks to 
dizzying heights, but that created criticism that their prices had shot too 
high. Nvidia was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 Wednesday after 
sinking 1.4%. But it rose 2.3% after the report from TSMC gave encouragement 
about the AI boom's strength.

   TSMC is a crucial player in the tech industry as a major supplier for Nvidia 
and other giants and as a key customer for ASML and other providers. TSMC's 
stock that trades in the United States rose 3.7%, while ASML's U.S.-listed 
stock rallied 6.7%.

   Also helping to calm financial markets was a sharp easing in oil prices.

   A barrel of benchmark crude sank 4.6% to $59.04, while Brent crude, the 
international standard, dropped 4.3% to $63.69. Analysts pointed to comments 
from President Donald Trump, who said Wednesday afternoon that he heard "on 
good authority" that plans for executions in Iran have stopped amid widespread 
protests against the country's leadership.

   Financial markets took that as a signal that tensions atop some of the 
world's largest oil deposits could ease and lower the possibility of a 
disruption to the global flow of oil. Tehran, though, has indicated fast trials 
and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters.

   Gold's price edged back from its record in another signal of potentially 
calming nerves across financial markets.

   Earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies continued to pick up pace, 
meanwhile, with several more big financial companies delivering their results 
for the last three months of 2025.

   BlackRock, the giant that's now overseeing more than $14 trillion in 
investments, rose 4.5% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than 
analysts expected.

   Morgan Stanley climbed 3.4% after likewise delivering stronger profit and 
revenue than expected. Goldman Sachs edged down by 0.1% after the investment 
bank topped analysts' forecasts for profit but fell short on revenue.

   Outside of earnings, Boston Scientific fell 5.5% after announcing it's 
buying Penumbra, whose products help remove blood clots, in a cash and stock 
deal valued at roughly $14.5 billion. Penumbra's stock jumped 11.3%.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields clawed back earlier declines following 
encouraging reports on the U.S. economy.

   One said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an 
indication that the pace of layoffs may be slowing. Other reports, meanwhile, 
said manufacturing was significantly stronger in the mid-Atlantic region and in 
New York state than economists expected.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.14% from 4.12% just before 
the release of the reports. It was at 4.15% late Wednesday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

   South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.6% for one of the world's bigger moves.