Stocks ended in record territory Wednesday, with tech stocks leading the charge.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 431.63 points, or 1.03% to end the session at a record high of 42,512. The S&P 500 got in on the act, climbing 0.71% to reach its own fresh record close of 5,792.04.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.60% to wrap up the day at 18,291.62.
Amazon, Apple and Super Micro Computer were among the tech names finishing in the green.
With just a month to go until the presidential election, George Smith, portfolio strategist with LPL Financial, said that even compared to prior cycles, "the 2024 U.S. presidential election is likely to be marked by significant uncertainty, exacerbated by recent events and the growing division of policy positions between Democrats and Republicans."
"As well as being a dramatic year politically, this year has been well above average in terms of the magnitude of stock market performance," he said. "Directionally, however, it has been typical of a presidential election year — overall positive with a summer dip. If 2024 follows a similar pattern, then we could notice stocks struggle through much of October until much closer to the election."
In election years, on average, Smith said, "stocks typically find a bottom from the late summer jitters right around a week before the election."
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Updated at 2:12 PM EDT
Fed Minutes
Fed minutes show strong support for the central bank's 50 basis point rate cut last month, although some officials pushed for a smaller quarter point reduction to end one of the most aggressive runs of policy tightening on record.
In the end, however, the decision was marked by one of the few times on record that a Fed Governor, in this case Micelle Bowman, voted against the consensus agreement, telling a banking event in Kentucky last month that she was "concerned that reducing the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/2 percentage point could be interpreted as a signal that the Committee sees some fragility or greater downside risks to the economy."
Earlier Wednesday, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow forecasting tool pegged one of its final estimates for third quarter GDP at 3.2%, compared to official tallies of 3% for the three months ending in June.
Fed officials were divided on whether to cut rates by half a point in September, minutes show pic.twitter.com/CE0gzvSD0N
— DekmarTrades via TradeCaster (@DekmarTrades) October 9, 2024
Updated at 1:20 PM EDT
Mixed auction
The Treasury's $39 billion sale of new 10-year notes drew a sharply decline in demand, sending yields on the benchmark paper to fresh 10-week highs of 4.071%.
Investors placed bids worth $96.7 billion, generating a so-called bid-to-cover, or demand ratio, of 2.48, down from the 2.64 tally recorded in last month's sale.
Foreign buyers, however, picked up some of the slack, with indirect bidders taking down 77.6% of the auction, up from 76% in the September sale.
US 10-YEAR NOTE AUCTION
— CtheLightTrading (@canuck2usa) October 9, 2024
BID-TO-COVER RATIO 2.48
HIGH YIELD 4.066% VS 4.062% PRE-SALE WI
SELLS $39 BLN AWARDS 99.31% OF BIDS AT HIGH
PRIMARY DEALERS TAKE 13.93%
soft ish
Updated at 11:36 AM EDT
New record highs
IBM (IBM) , Procter & Gamble (PG) and Honeywell (HON) are pacing gains for the Dow, which was last marked 275 points higher on the session, while the S&P 500 gained 29 points, or 0.52% heading into mid-day after hitting a record intraday peak of 5,718.21 points.
Several stocks are also printing fresh all-time highs today, including Lowe's (LOW) , Netflix (NFLX) , GE Vernova (GEV) and Oracle (ORCL) .
Benchmark 10-year note yields rose 3 basis points, to 4.046%, ahead of today's $39 billion auction while the dollar index was last marked 0.2% higher against a basket of its global peers at 102.749.
$SPX casually hitting an intraday record high 🟢 pic.twitter.com/5tMQitHNjN
— Kapoor Kshitiz (@kshitizkapoor_) October 9, 2024
Updated at 9:39 AM EDT
Red open
The S&P 500 was marked 5 points lower, or 0.09%, in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq slipping 30 points, or 0.17%.
The Dow was little-changed from last night's close while the mid-cap Russell 2000 slipped 5 points, or 0.2%.
S&P 500 Opening Bell Heatmap (Oct. 09, 2024)$SPY -0.02%🟥$QQQ -0.10%🟥$DJI -0.07%🟥$IWM -0.23%🟥 pic.twitter.com/1B8wjrxOEs
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) October 9, 2024
Updated at 9:19 AM EDT
Robo pause
Tesla (TSLA) shares hit pause on their solid autumn rally in early trading, slipping 0.43% to $243.44 each, as investors look to the group's highly-anticipated robotaxi reveal event tomorrow in Los Angeles.
Data from China's Passenger Car Association, published Wednesday, also showed a big 19.2% gain in September sales, which were pegged at 88,321 units. Tesla's global third quarter deliveries, tallied at 463,000, were published last week.
Related: Analyst updates Tesla stock price target ahead of key robotaxi event
Stock Market Today:
Stocks ended firmly higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 rising just under 1% and a bounceback in megacap tech stocks adding 1.45% to the Nasdaq. Risk sentiment improved heading into the start of the third-quarter-earnings season, Treasury yields edged modestly lower and oil prices recorded a sharp session pullback.
Sentiment heading into the Wednesday session is also likely to be affected by reports that the Department of Justice plans to ask a federal judge to force Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) to sell parts of its search business in what would be the biggest tech breakup in U.S. history.
Shares of the tech giant were marked 1.3% lower in premarket trading while Apple (AAPL) , another DoJ target, fell 0.23%.
Getty Images
On the bond side, Treasury yields were holding firm, with 10-year notes trading just north of 4% ahead of a $39 billion auction of new notes later in the session and the release of minutes from the Fed's September rate cut discussions early this afternoon.
Two more Fed officials, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Vice Chairman Philip Jefferson, are also due to make public remarks today as traders continue to tweak bets on the central bank's November interest-rate decision. At present, the CME Group's FedWatch pegs the odds of a 25 basis point rate cut at around 87%.
Related: Analyst updates Tesla stock price target ahead of key robotaxi event
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a 5-point opening-bell decline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is called 40 points lower.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is priced for a 40-point decline with Google's pullback offset by gains for Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) .
Boeing (BA) shares were also active, falling 1.5% in the premarket to $152.32 after talks among the planemaker, union officials representing around 30,000 workers, and a federal mediator broke down last night, extending the longest strike since 2008.
More Wall Street Analysts:
- Analysts revise Corning stock price targets after investor meeting
- Analysts retool Carnival stock price targets ahead of earnings
- Analyst revisits Costco stock price target, rating ahead of earnings
In overseas markets, a sharp selloff in China stocks weighed on sentiment in Europe, but gains have been improving with the Stoxx 600 rising 0.18% in early Frankfurt trading and Britain's FTSE 100 up 0.55% in London.
China stocks suffered their biggest decline since the Covid pandemic and snapped a 10-day winning streak as investors dumped stocks amid a lack of detail from government officials about their plans to boost the domestic economy with new spending and rate cuts.
The regionwide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark was last marked 0.41% lower heading into the close of trading, while a weaker yen and the follow-on from last night's gains on Wall Street lifted the Nikkei 225 0.87% in Tokyo.
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