Wall Street finished in the green on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both ending at record highs. It’s the third straight all-time high for the Nasdaq. The S&P took a breather Tuesday, but had notched seven consecutive records in the sessions before that.
The S&P gained 0.3%, while the Nasdaq finished flat albeit ever so slightly higher.
The Dow, still short of a record, closed up 0.3%, or 104 points.
The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting, released today, put in writing what central bank Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters in the press conference last month: it was indeed the Fed’s “talking about talking about” tapering meeting.
The minutes said that central bankers “judged that, as a matter of prudent planning, it was important to be well positioned to reduce the pace of asset purchases, if appropriate, in response to unexpected economic developments, including faster-than-anticipated progress toward the Committee’s goals…”
In other words, it’s time to tighten the belt.
“Various” members of the Fed’s policy committee also suggested tapering purchases of mortgage-backed securities more quickly, or earlier, compared with the purchases of Treasury securities, given the high valuations in the housing market.
How do you like them Apples?
The iPhone maker’s stock is flirting with a new all-time high for the first time since late January. Apple (AAPL) shares were up about 2% Wednesday, rising along with the rest of the tech sector. Apple is on track to post its seventh straight day of gains.
Apple is now worth about $2.4 trillion. But Tim Cook’s company continues to lag the rally in most other top tech stocks this year. Shares of Apple are up about 9% this year. The Nasdaq is up about 14%.
And all but one of the other so-called FAANG stocks has turned in a bigger gain in 2021. Facebook (FB) has soared nearly 30%. Amazon (AMZN) is up about 15%. Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) has skyrocketed about 45%. Netflix (NFLX) is the only loser, dipping about 1% year-to-date.
There was no concrete news to explain Apple’s recent surge. But tech stocks have been rallying lately as long-term bond yields fall. Apple rival Samsung also issued a healthy profit outlook Wednesday.
Summer is upon us, the economy is recovering and stocks are near record highs. But there’s still plenty for investors to worry about, especially when it comes to spending plans from Washington.
“An infrastructure bill still has a lot of details to be ironed out – like how do you pay for it,” Greg Valliere, AGF Investments Chief U.S. Policy Strategist, told Alison Kosik on the CNN Business digital live show Markets Now.
And then there’s the congressional summer break and the debt ceiling to worry about, Valliere added. “There’s a decent chance they’ll get an infra bill, not as much as Joe Biden wanted,” he said.
“In the meantime I think the markets have to worry about an economy that gets a little softer,” as it awaits more fiscal stimulus, he said.
It’s a weird time to be an investor. Stocks are near all-time highs, but can the rally keep going? Meanwhile, interest rates are still super low, making fixed income not exactly attractive.
“I think there’s so much liquidity out there sloshing through the system… It’s really hard for income-oriented investors to find yield,” said Michael Fredericks, head of income investing for the BlackRock Multi-Asset Strategies Group and portfolio manager of the BlackRock Multi-Asset Income Fund.
But “despite pretty elevated valuations on the S&P 500, the path of least resistance is higher,” he said. The S&P could hit a fresh all time high today.
For now, it makes sense to focus on dividend-oriented stocks and global companies, Fredericks added.
And what about inflation, Wall Street’s boogeyman?
“The market focus i think [has shifted] a bit over the last few months. We know that inflation is running hot right now as we’re reopening,” but the better question is what that will look like next year, Fredericks said.
The bond market, for example, is pricing in an inflation situation that looks similar to the state of the world before the pandemic – with stubbornly low inflation.
The pandemic has been rough on workers across industries and professions. Even as vaccination rates rise and virus infections remain low, people are struggling to find their feet again.
Languishing – the absence of burnout that’s leading to a lack of focus and motivation – is a real problem as the nation is emerging from the pandemic. But coaching can help with that, said Alexi Robichaux, BetterUp Co-Founder and CEO, an app that provides such services.
“Our mission is to democratize access to what’s traditionally thought of as coaching,” he added.
BetterUp’s business was doubling and tripling even in the years before the pandemic. But during Covid, some of the company’s clients faced large scale layoffs, which affected BetterUp’s business in turn.
Now, workers are facing burnout, while some are languishing even as other thrive. Parts of the workforce is rather resilient and people are bouncing back, Robichaux said, but that just doesn’t apply to everyone.
The company even sees an IPO on its horizon, albeit no time soon, Robichaux told Alison Kosik on the CNN Business digital live show Markets Now.
US stocks clawed their way back into the green and are modestly higher at midday.
The Dow is up 0.2%, or about 70 points, while the S&P 500 is 0.3% higher. The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.1%.
This puts both the S&P and the Nasdaq on track for fresh all-time highs.
If you’re looking for work, you have plenty of options.
The United States had 9.2 million job openings in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job openings and labor turnover survey, showing that America’s pandemic-era worker shortage stuck around through the late spring. A total of 5.9 million workers were hired in May, leaving a big gap between labor demand and supply.
The May data was little changed from April, which was revised down to 9.2 million available jobs from the 9.3 million reported initially.
Job openings in services and education rose, but the number of jobs available in entertainment and recreation actually fell by 80,000.
Meanwhile, the number of separations — including workers voluntary quitting as well as those laid off — fell by nearly half a million in May.
Shares of Amazon (AMZN) spiked Wednesday to a new all-time high as investors continued to celebrate good news for the company from Washington.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that a controversial $10 billion cloud computing contract that was surprisingly awarded to Microsoft (MSFT) during the Trump administration was being scrapped and that bidding for a new Defense Department deal would begin.
Amazon, which owns leading cloud company Amazon Web Services (AWS), was once considered a frontrunner for the DoD deal. But Trump’s well-publicized dislike for Jeff Bezos due to the critical coverage of the White House by the Bezos-owned Washington Post was believed to be a reason Amazon did not win the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract.
Bezos is no longer Amazon CEO, having handed over the reins to AWS chief Andy Jassy earlier this week. So the Amazon stock spike and potential for new revenue from a Pentagon cloud deal is a good start to Jassy’s tenure. Amazon is now worth nearly $1.9 trillion.
But don’t shed any tears for Microsoft. Its stock rose too Wednesday and the company’s market value is now $2.1 trillion, trailing only Apple (AAPL), which has a market cap of $2.4 trillion.
So much for investors being nervous about the economy overheating and leading to runaway inflation? The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond slid to about 1.31% Wednesday morning. That’s the lowest level since February and is well below the 52-week peak of about 1.77% in March as inflation fears ran rampant.
The jobs figures for June that were released Friday have certainly helped soothe the market’s nerves about inflation. Wage growth slowed from prior months, which could be a sign that businesses don’t feel as much pressure to offer bigger salaries to attract workers on the sidelines back in the labor force.
To be sure, there are still concerns about the rising prices of many consumer goods, which is in part due to higher demand but appears to be more about well-publicized global supply shortages from things ranging from semiconductors to chicken wings.
But worries about supermarket sticker shock may be waning…at least for investors. The bond market now seems willing to believe that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell may be right after all with his constant refrains about inflation pressures being just “transitory.”
US stocks were mixed at Wednesday’s market open.
While the Dow kicked off flat but in the red, the S&P 500 recovered from its setback in the prior session and opened 0.2% higher. Tuesday’s losses snapped a seven-day record streak for the S&P.
The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, opened 0.6% higher, putting it on track for another all-time high following Tuesday’s record.
Investors are watching the May JOLTS report due at 10 am ET as another data point about how the labor market recovery came along in the early summer.
The biggest data release of the day is JOLTS, showing how many open jobs America had in May. And it looks like we’re ripe for another record as the worker shortage continues to weigh on US employers.
Economists polled by Refinitiv predict 9.4 million positions were waiting to be filled in May, more than the whopping 9.3 million from April, which marked a record high in the data series that started in 2000.
While the job openings data lags a lot of other measures of the labor market, such as the monthly jobs report, economists have been paying close attention to it because it’s telling us how the jobs recovery is going. Businesses are keen to reopen to pre-pandemic capacities but various factors, including child care, are keeping workers at home, leading to a mismatch of labor supply and demand.
The May JOTLS data is released at 10 am ET.
Greek yogurt maker Chobani has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering.
In a short release, the company didn’t disclose the number of shares of stock that will be sold, the price range or what exchange it will trade on. It expects to begin trading following the regulatory approval process.
Chobani is mostly known for its yogurt, but has expanded beyond that recently including coffee.
Authentic Brands Group, the parent company of several well-known consumer brands including Aeropostale, Barney’s New York, Forever 21 and even Sports Illustrated, has filed to go public.
Its revenue grew nearly 2% compared to the year prior to $489 million in 2020, which the company said in a regulatory filing that its business model has “been resilient throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Other financial details, including the number of shares its planning to sell, weren’t revealed. However, it plans to trade under the symbol “AUTH” on the New York Stock Exchange.
Authentic Brands Group was founded by CEO Jamie Salter in 2010.
US stock futures were slightly lower after pointing higher after a rough start to the week Tuesday. Tech stocks continued to lead the way, with the Nasdaq pointing to a fourth-straight session of gains – and inching toward a record high.
Stocks gained as bond yields continued to fall and investors remained optimistic that the Federal Reserve’s minutes, due to be released at 2 pm ET, wouldn’t be quite as hawkish as some had feared.
The S&P 500’s streak of record closes ended at seven on Tuesday as US markets finished mostly lower.
Here’s where things stand as of 6:00 am ET:
Didi shares plunged almost 20% Tuesday in New York as fallout continued over news of the company’s troubles in China.
The company’s stock, which made its US debut only last week, closed down 19.6% on Tuesday at $12.49, well below its closing price of $15.53 on Friday.
Tuesday was the first trading day in the United States since Chinese regulators banned Didi’s ride-hailing platform from app stores in the country over the weekend. US markets were closed on Monday for the 4th of July holiday.
Many investors are still betting against top momentum and Reddit meme stocks — despite getting burned in the process.
Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic is one of the most heavily shorted stocks among customers of online broker TradeZero America.
Shares of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) have nearly doubled this year due to optimism about the demand for suborbital travel.
Another popular short with TradeZero America clients: AMC (AMC), but the movie theater chain’s shares have soared an astounding 2,350% in 2021, fueled by massive support from an army of Reddit traders who are betting that Hollywood’s triumphant box office comeback will continue.
Marin Software (MRIN), another stock embraced by the Reddit crowd, is a top short pick of TradeZero customers, too. Shares of the online advertising company have shot up more than 1,000% this year.
