US STOCKS-Wall St rebounds from tech rout; tariff, AI worries linger

By Shashwat Chauhan and Ragini Mathur

Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rebounded on Tuesday, led by recovering technology shares as investors assessed Anthropic's announcement of new AI tools and weighed President Donald Trump's shifting stance on trade tariffs.

Anthropic announced several new plug-ins targeting industries such as investment banking and HR, weeks after its earlier releases stoked a selloff in traditional software stocks.

Several other sectors ranging from commercial real estate to trucking and logistics have recently logged steep declines, as new developments in the AI space stoked worries of industrywide disruptions.

The S&P 500 software and services index .SPLRCIS, which has plunged more than 23% so far this year, advanced 0.8% on the day with help from Salesforce CRM.N, which was among the biggest gainers.

February has been a dour month for U.S. equities as high stock valuations and AI concerns pressure technology and other sectors, with investors questioning if massive AI spending was actually paying off.

At 11:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 338.50 points, or 0.69%, to 49,142.56, the S&P 500 .SPX added 39.24 points, or 0.57%, to 6,876.99, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC advanced 197.09 points, or 0.87%, to 22,824.37.

All three main indexes fell more than 1% on Monday, with financials .SPSY and software stocks among the worst hit as the fallout from Friday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Trump's tariffs triggered an exodus from high-risk equities.

After the verdict, Trump announced a temporary global tariff of 10%, which came into effect on Tuesday. He later said the levy would be 15%, but it was unclear when and if this would apply.

Analysts also attributed Monday's selloff to a bearish report from Citrini Research outlining potential threats to the global economy from the rise of artificial intelligence.

"Yesterday's reaction was so overdone that it can't help but bounce a little bit... the opening is just a reflection of the disaster that took place yesterday," said Ken Polcari, partner and chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth.

Most megacap and growth stocks bounced back slightly on Tuesday, with Apple AAPL.O leading gains with a 2.3% rise, while Nvidia NVDA.O climbed 0.4% ahead of its earnings, which are due after market close on Wednesday.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O jumped 7.6% after the chipmaker said it had agreed to sell up to $60 billion worth of AI chips to Meta Platforms META.O over five years.

Home Depot HD.N rose 3.3% after the home-improvement chain operator topped estimates for fourth-quarter results and maintained its annual forecasts.

Keysight Technologies KEYS.N climbed 23.9% after the electronic-equipment maker forecast second-quarter profit ahead of Wall Street estimates.

Meanwhile, several Federal Reserve officials including Fed governors Christopher Waller and Lisa Cook are speaking through the day.

Trump is slated to deliver the traditional State of the Union address to Congress later in the day.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.52-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.87-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 133 new lows.