US stocks recover majority of the early lost ground

Major US equity indices kicked off a new month on a downbeat note amid concerns about the recent upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields. 

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signalled that it remains on course to hike interest rates at its March meeting and triggered a fresh wave of an upsurge in the US bond yields. In fact, the 10-year yield jumped to a fresh three-year high above 2.75% and now seemed to be causing concerns. 

The market, however, pared early steep losses and was being supported by some better-than-expected quarterly earnings report by heavyweights, including Nokia, eBay and Facebook. 

On the economic data front, the number of people who applied for unemployment related benefits in late January fell by 1,000 to 230,000, near a 45-year low, and remained supportive of the early bounce.