The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rise strongly but the Dow remains in the red
With Technology With stocks performing strongly, the Nasdaq showed substantial bullish movement in Thursday’s session. The high-tech index extends the surge seen at the end of the previous session, reaching its best intraday level since last September.
Currently, the Nasdaq is sitting near its best levels for the day, up 375.01 points or 3.2% at 12,191.33. The S&P 500 is also up 59.24 points or 1.4% at 4,178.45 after hitting a five-month intraday high.
Meanwhile, the narrower Dow Jones remains in negative territory, with the blue chip index down 112.89 points or 0.3% at 33,980.07.
The Nasdaq surge comes as Meta Platforms (META) leads a tech sector rally, with parent company Facebook soaring 26.8%.
Meta’s spike comes after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and announced a $40 billion share buyback.
Stocks also continue to benefit from a positive reaction to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement on Wednesday, with traders expressing optimism that the Fed is nearing the end of its rate hike cycle.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones bucks the uptrend in part due to a notable decline in Merck (MRK) shares, which fell 4.6% after the pharmaceutical giant provided disappointing guidance. .
Traders are also eagerly awaiting the release of the Department of Labor’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.
A day before the monthly report, the Labor Department unexpectedly released a report showing another modest drop in first jobless claims in the United States during the week ended January 28.
The report said initial jobless claims fell slightly to 183,000, down 3,000 from the unrevised level of 186,000 the previous week. The decline surprised economists, who expected jobless claims to climb to 200,000.
With the expected drop, unemployment insurance claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 181,000 in the week ended April 23, 2022.
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed that labor productivity in the United States rose more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Industry News
Airline stocks continued to see substantial strength in afternoon trading, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring 6.3% to hit a nearly eight-month intraday high.
Considerable strength also remains visible among software stocks, as evidenced by the 3.4% spike in the Dow Jones US Software Index. The index hit its best intraday level in more than four months.
Housing stocks are also seeing significant strength on the day, pushing Philadelphia’s housing sector index up 3.2% to a year-over-year intraday high.
Retail, computer hardware and commercial real estate stocks also rose sharply, while energy, gold and pharmaceuticals stocks saw notable weakness.
Other markets
In foreign trade, stocks markets in the Asia-Pacific region increased mainly during Thursday’s session. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.2%, while South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.7%.
Major European markets also moved higher on the day. While the German DAX index jumped 2.2%, the French CAC 40 index jumped 1.3% and the British FTSE 100 index rose 0.8%.
In the bond market, Treasuries have pulled back well from their highs but continue to see modest strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves opposite to its price, is down 1.2 basis points to 3.385%.
For comments and feedback, contact: [email protected]
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rise strongly but the Dow remains in the red
