Dow gains 492 points as tech stocks fuel continued rally

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Tech stocks led a second consecutive day of a rally on Wall Street Tuesday as markets continued to recover from fears about the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 492.4 points, or 1.4%, while the S&P 500 rose 2.07% and the Nasdaq Composite closed the day up 3.03%.

Investors bought a dip in tech stocks brought on by the Omicron concerns causing software company Okta to rise 5.76% while Crowdstrike gained 4.94% and Adobe increased 4.49%.

Chipmakers also saw a boost as Nvidia gained 7.96% and Intel rose 3.1%.

Major cap tech stocks were on the rise as well, with Apple rising 3.54%, Amazon climbing 2.8% and Microsoft growing 2.68%.

Along with Omicron fears, investors have also been closely monitoring when the Federal Reserve will move to accelerate tapering its asset-purchasing.

"Tech and growth stocks are the longest-duration assets, which means they're going to be the most negatively impacted in valuation by any bump up in inflation which would take interest rates up," Paul Meeks, portfolio manager for Independent Wealth Solutions Management, told Yahoo Finance. "But on the other hand, what the Fed is doing and is even talking about doing, which is going from accommodative to more restrictive monetary policy, is a known."

Travel-related stocks continued their rally as Wynn Resorts gained 1.8% and Norwegian Cruise Line grew 0.5%.

Energy stocks were also on the rise as global oil demand recovered with Diamondback Energy gaining 6.8%, Devon Energy rising 6.52% and Occidental Petroleum increasing 4.29%.