Microsoft's Move Doesn't Spook Market

The stock market managed to turn positive for the new month on Thursday, as strong gains wiped out losses from Wednesday. The Dow rose 435 points to 33,248, the S&P 500 rose 75 points to 4,176, and the Nasdaq rose 322 points to 12,316. The latter was a gain of 2.6%, the highest of the three. At one point in early trading, all the markets were in negative territory, partly because Microsoft cut its financial forecasts for the current quarter, reports the AP. However, the markets soon shook that off, with the up-and-down nature of the day's trading reflecting current volatility.

“The market is on pins and needles waiting to find out if inflation will come down and give us some respite from the Fed rate hike regimen," Barry Bannister of Stifel tells CNBC. "That’s why we have this choppiness. It’s a period of great uncertainty." (More stock market stories.)