US stocks rebounded in afternoon trading Wednesday after slumping for six straight days on concern that growth in China was slowing more quickly than previously thought.
With the market set to close, the Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 600 points, to about 3.9 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 73 points, or 3.93 percent, to 1,941. The Nasdaq composite added 192 points, or 4.25 percent, to 4,698.
The three major U.S. indexes dropped six days in a row heading into Wednesday. That’s the longest market slide in more than three years. The Dow has fallen about 1,900 points over that period, while the slump wiped more than $2 trillion off the value of S&P 500 companies.
Wednesday was the second day that stocks staged a morning rally. A rebound on Tuesday faded in the final minutes of trading, with the Dow closing more than 200 points lower after having been up more than 400 earlier in the day.
Markets have been volatile since China decided to weaken its currency earlier this month. Investors interpreted the move as an attempt to bolster a sagging economy.
Traders are also jittery about the outlook for interest rates. The Federal Reserve has signaled it could raise its key interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade later as this year. The Fed isn’t expected to deliver a policy update until it wraps up a meeting of policymakers in mid-September.
Investors were also following the latest corporate deal and earnings news. Technology stocks were among the biggest gainers.
Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE and a nationally known bond expert, told Bloomberg Television that the central bank missed its window to raise rates without adding risk to the markets and the economy.
The Fed’s rate-setting committee is scheduled to meet next on Sept. 16.
The Investment Co. Institute said in its weekly report on mutual fund flows that in the week before the Dow started to fall, investors were pulling money out of domestic funds and pouring it into world stock funds.
In the week ended Aug. 19, investors pulled $5.2 billion out of US stock funds, and put $4.7 billion into world funds, potentially opening themselves up to the declines in foreign markets at the same time they evaded some of the domestic losses.
Money has been steadily flowing out of US funds in recent weeks, the ICI reported.
Beth Healy can be reached at beth.healy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @HealyBeth.