By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 cut losses to turn positive Thursday, led by dip-buying action in tech stocks after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It rose by 1.1%. The fell 0.19% or 62 points. After intraday falling into bearish territory, which saw a 20% decrease from its recent peak, it rose 2.95 percent.

Russia invaded Ukraine with multiple fronts, prompting condemnation from the world’s leaders. It also ratcheted up geopolitical tensions.

The U.S. responded with fresh sanctions on Russia aimed at further crippling Moscow’s ability to raise funds and to import key technology.

“Commodities prices moving higher against the backdrop of a market already in correction territory and facing the prospect of rising rates, points to a bleak market outlook,” Phillip Toews, CEO & portfolio manager of Toews Asset Management, told Investing.com on Thursday.

Stocks’ weakness triggered dip buying, which saw battered stocks of tech stock in demand.

Apple (NASDAQ:), Amazon (NASDAQ:), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:)  were higher.

Wall Street has encouraged investors to be cautious and invest in high-quality stocks that have healthy cash flows.

“[W]e view these geopolitical shock events as times not to panic … but instead selectively focus on the defensive tech stocks with significant free cash flow,” Wedbush said in a note.

Also, the quarterly earnings season is a shining spot.

Moderna After fourth quarter results that were better than expected, (NASDAQ:), the stock rose 14%

Booking Holdings (NASDAQ) reported also better than expected quarterly results but warned that future Covid-19 travel restrictions could hinder growth.

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE 🙂 saw a more than 9 percent increase after reporting an optimistic outlook for 2022 tickets sales and a better-than-expected quarter.

Investors have identified higher-paying dividend stock in areas such as health care, communications and other services as possible areas of interest to help mitigate the effects of market crashes.

“In falling markets, it’s not about having the best gain, but having the least loss,” Toews said. “Higher dividend stocks provide a sort of natural rebound because as the price of the stocks fall, a relatively reliable stable dividend in places like health care and communication services as well as other categories are unlikely to be immediately effected by a downturn in financial markets and are able to recover quicker from losses.”