US Stocks: Wall St set to rebound after volatile week; takeover talks boost VMware

US Stocks: Wall St set to rebound after volatile week; takeover talks boost VMware

U.S. stock indexes deepened year-to-date losses last week as dismal forecasts from Walmart Inc and other retailers added to worries about surging inflation and its impact on consumers and economic growth.

The benchmark S&P 500 fell over 20% from its Jan. 3 record closing high at one point on Friday, pushing it to the brink of confirming a bear market. The index is now down 18.7% from its all-time closing high.

Cloud service provider VMWare Inc surged 21.4% in premarket trading after reports over the weekend said chipmaker Broadcom Inc was in talks to acquire the company. Broadcom fell 5.1%.

"It doesn't surprise me and that's what you will start to see when you are bouncing along the bottom, it is an indication that equities are becoming more attractive," said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist at MAI Capital Management.

Beaten-down megacap growth stocks including Apple Inc , Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com gained between 0.4% and 0.7%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 1.2% to lead gains among the big banks after the biggest U.S. lender by assets lifted its 2022 outlook for net interest income.

Readings on the second estimate of first-quarter U.S. GDP, PCE price index and durable goods data for April