Stocks Open Higher After S&P 500’s Worst Week in Two Years

Bitcoin rose alongside other cryptocurrencies, continuing to claw back recent losses after a bruising weekend. Bitcoin recently traded at about $21,028, up 2.9% from its 5 p.m. ET value Monday, and about 19% higher from a recent low of $17,601.58 reached Saturday, according to CoinDesk data.

Investors’ appetite for riskier assets on Tuesday follows a tumultuous week in the markets, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s approval of a 0.75-percentage-point interest-rate increase, the largest since 1994. That sent investors scrambling to unload riskier assets amid growing fears that central bankers will plunge the U.S. economy into a recession. The benchmark S&P 500 finished the week 5.8% lower, its largest one-week decline in more than two years. 

Government leaders and officials in recent days have tried to assuage an increasingly jittery nation that an economic slowdown isn’t guaranteed as central bankers work to tame decades-high inflation. President Biden on Monday said he spoke with

Lawrence Summers,

a former Treasury secretary, and reiterated that he doesn’t see a recession as inevitable. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President

James Bullard

also said the economy appears on track for more expansion this year.

Still, many market watchers are bracing for an economic downturn. In a note Monday, a team of

Goldman Sachs

economists increased their outlook for a U.S. recession, citing concerns that the Fed will feel compelled to respond forcefully to inflation data, even if economic activity slows. The team now sees a 30% probability of entering a recession over the next year, versus 15% previously, and a 25% probability of entering a recession in the second year if one is avoided in the first. 

Investors and analysts say they expect more pain ahead in the markets, though some are still willing to wade in and buy stocks at a discount after a selloff that has dragged the S&P 500 down 23% this year. Many pointed to Tuesday’s recovery as a bounce off last week’s drawdown.

“This still feels like a bit of a dead-cat bounce,” said

Viraj Patel,

global macro strategist at Vanda Research, referring to a term used to describe a brief market rally. He said investors’ willingness last week to dump shares of winning sectors this year, including energy and utilities stocks, might be a signal that this year’s drawdown has entered into its latter stages. Still, he said, he believes the selloff “still has legs to go.”

Tuesday’s bullish mood came alongside a selloff in U.S. government bonds, sending the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury note higher. The yield on the benchmark note traded at 3.292%, up from 3.238% Friday. Yields and bond prices move in opposite directions.

In individual stocks, gains were spread across many sectors, with technology shares, travel companies and banks trading higher. Cruise line

Royal Caribbean Group

rose 1.3%, while

American Airlines Group

climbed 1.4%, boosted by expectations for what is expected to be a busy travel season. 

Growth stocks, which have been beaten down this year, notched gains before the opening bell. Data and software company

Palantir Technologies

jumped 4%, chip maker

Nvidia

gained 3.3% and

Tesla

added 4.5%. Megacap technology companies

Amazon.com

and

Netflix

each gained 2.4% and 1.3%, respectively. 

Kellogg

shares jumped 5% after the company said it plans to split itself into three publicly traded businesses.

Investors this week will be monitoring Fed Chairman

Jerome Powell’s

testimony before Congress for any further indication about the path of interest rates this year. He is expected to testify Wednesday and Thursday. Data on housing and consumer sentiment are also due. 

For now,

Seema Shah,

chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, said investors may see value in companies whose shares have been badly beaten down this year. However, she said, she expects the market to fall further once investors begin to see consistent declines in earnings growth.

“I think what you could see is a [modest] rally through the summer…and as you get into the autumn months and the next earnings season, I think a lot of the economic data is going to start to turn and earnings growth is going to start to turn,” she said. Still, she noted, even now, “sentiment is deteriorating very rapidly.”

Other safe-haven assets retreated Tuesday amid improved investor sentiment. The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of 16 currencies, slipped less than 0.1%. Gold prices fell 0.1% to $1,839.40 a troy ounce.

In commodities, oil prices rose. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose for a second day, climbing 1.3% to $115.57 a barrel. Last week, oil prices fell amid concerns that a possible recession would weigh on energy demand.

Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5%. In Asia, trading was mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.9% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.8%, while China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.3%.

Write to Caitlin McCabe at caitlin.mccabe@wsj.com