The stock market ended Tuesday on a firmly higher note with the Nasdaq (+2.0%) pacing a daylong advance while the S&P 500 (+1.1%) and Dow (+0.7%) recorded slimmer gains.
Today’s rally lifted the S&P 500 back above its 200-day moving average (4473) after that area offered slight resistance on Monday while the Nasdaq reclaimed its 50-day moving average (13831).
Ten sectors finished the day in positive territory with consumer discretionary (+2.5%) and communication services (+2.0%) holding the lead throughout the day.
The discretionary sector rebounded from yesterday’s underperformance with NIKE ( NKE 133.09, +2.90, +2.2%), which rallied to its 50-day moving average (139.12) before pulling back. The advance was fueled by above-consensus results for Q3 while top components Amazon ( AMZN 3297.78, +67.95, +2.1%) and Tesla ( TSLA 993.98, +72.82, +7.9%) also recorded strong gains.
In the communication services sector, top component Alphabet ( GOOG 2805.55, +75.98, +2.8%) rallied past its 200-day moving average (2766) to a five-week high while Meta Platforms ( FB 216.65, +5.16, +2.4%) reclaimed yesterday’s loss.
Other influential sectors like technology (+1.4%) and financials (+1.6%) also spent the day in positive territory with the former benefiting from outperformance in top components like Apple ( AAPL 168.82, +3.44, +2.1%) and Microsoft ( MSFT 304.06, +4.90, +1.6%) while the latter rallied as Treasury yields continued climbing.
Selling across the curve drove Treasury yields to fresh highs for the year with the 10-yr yield rising six basis points to 2.37%.
On the downside, the energy sector (-0.6%) was the lone decliner, pulling back from Monday’s rally. The sector narrowed this week’s gain to 3.1% as crude oil fell $0.73, or 0.7%, to $109.48/bbl, snapping a four-day skid. Recent reports about a possible EU embargo on Russian oil were followed by indications that such a ban is unlikely to be implemented.
The market did not receive any data today but the weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior -1.2%) will be released at 7:00 ET tomorrow, followed by February New Home Sales (Briefing.com consensus 820,000; prior 801,000) at 10:00 ET.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average -4.2% YTD
- S&P 500 -5.3% YTD
- Russell 2000 -7.0% YTD
- Nasdaq Composite -9.8% YTD
Overseas:
- Europe: DAX +1.0%, FTSE +0.5%, CAC +1.2%
- Asia: Nikkei +1.5%, Hang Seng +3.2%, Shanghai +0.2%
Commodities:
- Crude Oil -0.73 @ 109.48
- Nat Gas +0.28 @ 5.22
- Gold -6.40 @ 1922.30
- Silver -0.32 @ 24.93
- Copper +0.01 @ 4.71