In the final session of the month and the first half of the year, U.S. stock indexes were largely higher Wednesday afternoon, with the Dow and S&P 500 pushing higher but the Nasdaq Composite dropping. According to Dow Jones statistics, the three major US market indexes are on course for their best first-half year performance since 2019.
What are the results of stock benchmarks?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.47% gained 175 points, or 0.5 percent, to 34,464.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.05 percent rose 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,294, boosted by gains in the consumer staples XLP, +0.56 percent, discretionary XLY, +0.20 percent, and energy XLE, +1.07 percent sectors.
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.12 percent was trading at 14,512, down 15 points or 0.1 percent.
The S&P 500 added 1.19 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 4,291.80 on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 27.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,528.33, its 19th record close of the year. The Dow closed at 34,292.29, up 9.02 points, or less than 0.1 percent. What is the market’s driving force? The Dow was regaining lost ground this week, aided by a boost from Boeing Co. BA, +1.97 percent, as the broader market traded near all-time highs, boosted by gains in technology and growth sectors. “I believe the news that airlines are buying additional planes is supporting Boeing, and that, in turn, is boosting the Dow,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management. But, in the big picture, Pavlik believes growth stocks are primed for more gains if 10-year Treasury yields fall below 1.5 percent and investors reconsider where the United States is in terms of its economic expansion. Pavlik told MarketWatch, “At least in my perspective, the economy may be a little bit further along in the economic cycle than a lot of people assume.” “I see it as being in the middle or at the end of the cycle.” “If that’s the case,” he added, the Federal Reserve “won’t be able to make all of those rate hikes people are expecting to see.” Easing fears about the rate of inflation as the economy recovers from the COVID outbreak has spurred the recent surge in shares, at least in part. In economic news, a monthly report on private-sector employment in the United States indicated that 692,000 jobs were gained in June, paving the way for the Labor Department’s more carefully watched report on Friday. According to a consensus of expectations from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and MarketWatch, the United States created 550,000 private-sector jobs in June, after a 978,000 increase in May. According to the June data, the hotel industry hired the most people, with 332,000 new employees. However, the May employment figure was cut from the previously announced 978,000 to 882,000, making it the best month since September 2020. In an emailed statement on Wednesday, Mike Loewengart, director of investment strategy at E-Trade Financial, wrote, “The private-sector payrolls may have beaten the mark this month, but keep in mind it’s significantly lower than the downwardly revised total from May.” As investors strive to figure out how improvements in the labor market can influence the Fed’s policy intentions, employment has become a prominent focus for markets. Late Tuesday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told Bloomberg TV that the “unemployment rate would have to drop fairly substantially, or inflation would have to really continue at a very high rate, before we would take seriously a rate hike in 2022,” but that he is not ruling it out, adding that it is appropriate to think about scaling back the Fed’s monthly purchases of $120 billion. Separately, a trade group said Wednesday that a gauge of business conditions in the Chicago region rose at a slightly slower pace in June, one month after reaching its best level in 47 years. The Chicago Business Barometer, generally known as the Chicago PMI, dropped to 66.1 in June from 75.2 in May, the highest reading since December 1983. This is the lowest reading since February. The rise in housing values in the United States throughout the pandemic has also been a major focus. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that pending home sales increased by 8% in May compared to April. MarketWatch polled economists, who predicted a 1% decline in pending home sales in May. The announcement came after the release of the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which revealed that prices rose at their quickest rate in April in history as purchasers competed for a limited quantity of homes. The national home price index increased by 14.6 percent over the previous year, the greatest number in the more than 30 years of S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller statistics. In April, the independent 20-city index, which measures property prices in a set of key cities throughout the country, grew by 14.9 percent over the previous year, significantly above the 13.3 percent gain recorded the month before. BCA Research analysts noted, “These are growth rates that equal the frothiest years of the mid-2000s housing boom!” Which businesses are being scrutinized?
People did not buy as much food for the home as they did in the early days of the pandemic, causing General Mills Inc. GIS to see a reduction in sales and earnings in the most recent quarter.
Xometry Inc. XMTR, an AI-driven marketplace for on-demand manufacturing, had its stock soar following its first public offering, which priced at $44 per share, well above the planned price range of $38 to $42.
LegalZoom.com Inc. (NYSE: LZ) saw its stock rise when it priced its first public offering at $28 per share, above the proposed range of $24 to $27 per share.
Wow Internet, Cable, and Phone is a broadband provider.
WOW announced on Wednesday that it had signed two agreements to sell five service areas for $1.8 billion.
Torrid Holdings Inc. CURV, a direct-to-consumer plus-size women’s clothing retailer, increased its proposed initial public offering to 10 million shares priced at $18 to $21 each on Wednesday, up from an earlier intention of 8 million shares.
After the Chinese coffee purveyor revealed its corrected fourth-quarter 2019 financial results, Luckin Coffee Inc. LKNCY stock soared in Wednesday trading.
According to a report published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Sinovac Biotech Ltd. SVA’s COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 showed that the shot is safe and produces a high antibody response.
ConocoPhillips COP announced on Wednesday that it is increasing its share buyback program for 2021 by $1 billion, bringing its total planned dividends to shareholders for the year to $6 billion, or 7% of its current market capitalization.
What about your other assets? How are they doing?
TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y TMUBMUSD10Y T The yield curve and the price of debt move in opposite directions.
The ICE US Dollar Index DXY, which compares the currency to a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.4 percent.
Oil futures were up 1.4 percent at $74.02 a barrel, with the US benchmark CL00 up 1.4 percent. Gold futures GC00 were trading at $1,772.20 an ounce, up 0.5 percent.
The Stoxx 600 SXXP, a pan-European stock index, sank 0.8 percent, while the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 UKX, -0.71 percent fell 0.7 percent.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP rose 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI fell 0.6 percent, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK fell less than 0.1 percent./n
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