Stocks rebound after huge sell-off

As we covered last weekend, stocks were up big-time leading into the weekend, but that changed quickly as this week began, once again highlighting the volatility of the economy right now.

Monday brought the biggest sell-off of the year of stocks, thanks a number of factors that are still being debated. However, most experts are pointing not only to bad news coming from China about the economy there , but also the tragic explosions that occurred in Boston during the Boston Marathon.

The events, along with the big gains last week that may have led some to sell after the weekend ended, combined to influence declines in all three major indexes on Monday. However, the news didn’t stay bad for very long, because all three were back up on Tuesday, giving investors a reassuring pat on the back after a scary beginning to the week.

At the back of the pack, the Dow Jones was up 1.1%, which was a nice upswing. However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were the real stars, with the S&P 500 up 1.4% and Nasdaq climbing up a very nice 1.5% on Tuesday.

What individual stocks were the leaders of the day? Coca-Cola was one of them, with a 6% rise owing to the company’s exceeding of sales forecasts.  Another company that exceeded expectations during the first quarter of the year was Johnson & Johnson, which also saw their stock rise.

They can’t all be winners, though, and Target experienced a little trouble after they had to lower their earnings and sales forecast (the culprit? “Seasonal factors”).

Meanwhile, gold had to come up in price after a 9% drop recently, and they did, climbing back up by nearly 2%. Most experts are not overly optimistic, thinking that the small uptick was just a correction for what was likely an exaggerated drop in the first place.