Indexes ended lower in Wednesday's trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up early gains and traded sideways during the afternoon session, ending 0.3% lower even as Microsoft rose on solid results.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Johnson from Louisiana won the vote to become the House Speaker, replacing Kevin McCarthy. Johnson won 220 votes, more than the required number, ending a stalemate for the Speaker post. Indexes rose momentarily on the news.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell was scheduled to speak at the Moynihan Lecture in Social Science and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon as a burgeoning deficit keeps bond yields elevated. The Fed is in a blackout period ahead of the Nov. 1 meeting and will not discuss monetary policy. Traders expect rates to remain unchanged in November, going by the CME FedWatchTool.
The Personal Consumption and Outlays report for September will be released on Friday. The core PCE index, which is the Fed's favored measure of inflation, is expected to taper to 3.7% on an annual basis from 3.9% in August, according to Econoday.
The S&P 500 and the tech-dominated Nasdaq suffered a worse fate in the stock market today. The S&P 500 saw a 1.4% fall while the Nasdaq slid 2.4%.
The Nasdaq undercut its follow-through day low of Oct. 6 on Friday and sent the market into a correction. The Nasdaq is also at risk of falling below the 200-day line.
Volume on the NYSE was higher and on the Nasdaq lower from Tuesday's levels. On Wednesday, decliners beat advancers by almost 3-to-1 on both major exchanges.
The small-cap Russell 2000 lagged, falling 1.7%, while the Innovator IBD 50 ETF underperformed and fell over 2%, further below the 50-day moving average.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 11 basis points to 4.95%. The rise also apparently hurt stocks today.
Crude oil rose more than 1.5% to $85.31 a barrel.
Dow Jones Stocks
Boeing reversed lower after it reported continuing losses and slowing sales in the third quarter. But the bellwether aircraft maker maintained its cash flow targets for the year. BA stock traced a big outside day in strong volume.
Microsoft rose nearly 3% after a beat and raise quarter reported late Tuesday. Cloud computing drove sales as the company integrates AI features such as co-pilot into its Intelligent Cloud and Azure cloud platforms. Shares gapped up but gave up some gains in the afternoon. The stock is in buy range from a 340.86 entry.
Also in the Dow, Visa rebounded from the 200-day line after a strong fiscal fourth quarter report as cross-border transactions surged.
Stocks Moving Today
Outside Dow Jones, Google parent Alphabet fell nearly 10% after its earnings report. Revenue rose 11% to $77 billion while earnings rose 46% to $1.55 per share. Revenue from Google Cloud rose 22% to $8.41 billion but missed views of $8.64 billion. According to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Justin Patterson, "Google Cloud appears to have ceded market share to Microsoft Azure."
Among other earnings movers, T-Mobile tried to retake the 200-day line but closed below it as the stock reversed lower. A surge in subscriptions helped the wireless telecom company beat earnings views, though revenue lagged.
Snap gave back early gains in a sharp reversal after Q3 results were announced late Tuesday. Both sales and earning rose but the company's note regarding a pause in some ad campaigns on Snapchat amid the Israel-Hamas war has likely sent the stock lower.
IBD 50 stock and Leaderboard holding Meta Platforms reported earnings after the market close and shares jumped 3.5% in extended trading. Shares are testing the 50-day line and moved above that level in after-hours trading.
New home sales surprised to the upside and rose to 759,000 in September, beating both consensus views of 685,000 and August's revised 676,000.
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