Wall Street heads for second straight day of solid gains in a whipsaw week

Wall Street pointed sharply higher Wednesday as anxiety about a softening U.S. economy took a back seat to another trove of mostly strong corporate earnings reports.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 1% and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%. Futures for the technology-heavy Nasdaq were up 1.3%.

Japanese markets also clawed back more of the losses from Monday's wipeout. The country's benchmark Nikkei 225 index finished 1.2% higher after a Bank of Japan official suggested the central bank would refrain from raising interest rates while markets are unstable.

The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that it had returned to profitability in the third quarter as the entertainment giant's combined streaming business started making money for the first time. Its shares were essentially unchanged before the bell.

Shopify jumped 18% after the maker of online commerce software posted strong results and raised its guidance. The Canadian company saw its second-quarter revenue grow 21% over last year's quarter and said it expects similar growth in the current quarter.

Shares in CVS Health were largely unchanged after the retail pharmacy and health care giant slashed its 2024 forecast for a third time. CVS continues to struggle with its health insurance business, with its operating income from that segment plunging 39%. CVS said the leader of that segment, Executive Vice President Brian Kane, has left the company.

Airbnb tumbled more than 14% after it reported a 15% decline in second quarter profit and told investors that it saw some signs of slowing demand in the U.S. The online vacation rental booker's revenue outlook disappointed investors.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 climbed 1% to break a brutal three-day losing streak. It had tumbled a bit more than 6% on a raft of concerns, including worries the Federal Reserve had pressed the brakes too hard for too long on the U.S. economy through high interest rates in order to beat inflation.

The Dow added 0.8% and the Nasdaq gained 1%.

Stocks of all kinds climbed in a mirror opposite of the day before, from smaller companies that need U.S. households to keep spending to huge multinationals more dependent on the global economy.

While fears have risen that the U.S. economy might be slowing too quickly, it is still growing. Many economists see a recession in the next year or so as unlikely. The U.S. stock market is also still up a healthy amount for the year so far, and the Federal Reserve says it has ample room to cut interest rates to help the economy.

In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX added 1% as an increase in factory output in June offset concern over weaker-than-expected exports.

The CAC 40 in Paris gained 1.4% and London's FTSE 100 was 1.1% higher.

The Nikkei index bounced during the day but ultimately gained more than 400 points to close at 35,089.62. It soared more than 10% on Tuesday, recovering a large share of the losses it suffered Monday, its worst day since 1987.

The gains followed remarks by a Bank of Japan official who noted that even though the central bank had raised interest rates a week earlier, to 0.25% from 0.1%, monetary policy remains lax.

The interest rate hike, however modest, set in motion a domino effect of selling by traders to adjust to higher costs for carry trades — a favorite trade for hedge funds and other investors — due to higher interest rates and a rise in the value of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar. That accentuated the scale of the declines, especially in Tokyo.

Speaking to business leaders in the northern island of Hokkaido, Shinichi Uchida, a BOJ vice governor, acknowledged the recent market turmoil, triggered in part by concerns over the outlook for the U.S. economy, and said he believed the U.S. would have a “soft landing,” avoiding a recession.

Japan's central bank can afford to wait, he said, and “will not raise its policy interest rate when financial and capital markets are unstable.”

Uchida's comments “acted like a financial security blanket, calming jittery markets and effectively signaling continued protective intervention,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

The dollar rebounded against the yen early Wednesday, jumping to 147.01 yen from 144.32 late Tuesday. A weaker yen tends to help profits of export manufacturers that earn most of their revenue overseas, and the yen had surged after the rate hike last week after trading recently at a near four decade low level of 160 yen to the dollar.

Also Wednesday, China reported that its exports rose 7% in July from a year earlier. That was well below the near-10% forecasts of most economists and the slowest rate of growth in three months. It also reflected a low base. Exports jumped 8.6% year-on-year in June, much more than expected.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 1.4% higher at 16,877.86. The Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.1% to 2,869.83.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.8% to 2,568.41 and the benchmark in Taiwan jumped 3.9% — both markets were among the biggest losers in Monday's sell-offs due to heavy weighting of technology shares that have seen the biggest losses in the past few weeks.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia rose 0.3% to 7,699.80.

In other dealings Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up $1.66 to $74.86 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, also added $1.66 to $78.14.

The euro fell to $1.0921 from $1.0928.