Turbulent trading leads to market gains as stocks recover, SaaS lags

Sometimes, it takes only the promise of a

massive government bailout

to put that rose-colored filter on the effluent sandwich of today’s economic realities.

After yesterday’s

terrifying sell-off

, American equities recovered today, with the major domestic indices rising to close the day. While the day’s gains do not erase yesterday’s losses, they are a welcome return to form for equity markets long-accustomed to rising.

The final results in less turbulent times would be more shocking, but today the Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose

1,167.1 points, or 4.89%, the SP 500 rose 135.7 points, or 4.94%, while the Nasdaq Composite picked up 393.6 points, or 4.95%.

SaaS and cloud stocks, however, lagged their broader sector, only managing a 3.1% gain, according to the Bessemer-

Nasdaq

cloud index. This means that after SaaS and cloud stocks lost more yesterday

(in percentage terms), they also recovered less than their peers. After a long period of leading, modern software companies are being repriced in the public markets, possibly leaving the company category with less of a premium over other tech companies.

Stitch Fix’s sharp decline signals high growth hurdles for tech-enabled startups

The rally was broad, with bitcoin ending a period of decline, and oil sharply ascending.

Still, the public markets are down from their heights. The Dow is off 15%, and touched a new 52-week low today before recovering. The SP is also off a smidgen over 15%, while the Nasdaq is down a hair more at 15.2%, compared to its recently set 52-week highs.

A few more days like today are needed, then, to fully repair the damage. And there’s still the overhang of bad news, including: a quarantine zone set up in New Rochelle, N.Y.; the terrible shape of oil and gas companies’ debt loads; and the lack of any clarity around an actual bailout from the government.

Hopefully tomorrow morning stocks are quiet, and then the TechCrunch Public Markets Crew (

Shiebs and Alex

) can stop writing these posts. Until then, however, expect more.

As a final note, Apple and Microsoft are still trillion-dollar companies. So even in the throes of this correction, tech is hardly in the dumps. And the Nasdaq is up 12.6% over the last year.