Yahoo Finance Stock Market News for Jul 3, 2024
Wall Street closed higher on Tuesday, driven by mega-cap growth stocks. Optimistic comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell also helped lift investor mood. All of the three major stock indexes ended in the green.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 162.33 points, or 0.4%, to close at 39,331.85. Seventeen components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory, while 13 ended in negative.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 149.46 points, or 0.8%, to close at 18,028.76.
The S&P 500 advanced 33.92 points, or 0.6%, to close at 5509.01. Nine of the 11 broad sectors of the benchmark index closed in the green. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY), the Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLF) and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) gained 2%, 1.2% and 0.9%, respectively, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) lost 0.4%.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 1.6% to 12.03. A total of 9.9 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 11.8 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 2.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. The NYSE had 179 new highs and 97 new lows.
Powell’s Comments at Portugal Helps Drive Markets
At a policy conference hosted in Portugal by the European Central Bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the United States was back on a “disinflationary path.”
Powell declined to comment on when the rate cuts would begin but conceded that the central bank had come back much closer to the balance between the level of inflation and employment scenario that it wishes to see. However, he emphasized the fact that the Fed would like to go through further data before loosening monetary policy. This is because, while the PCE inflation numbers were well within control, they had still not come down to the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
"I think the last reading ... and the one before it to a lesser suggest that we are getting back on the disinflationary path," Powell said. "We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2%, before we start loosening policy."
Mega-cap growth stocks like tech usually do well when inflation seems to be coming down and the outlook looks better. Powell’s comments, thus, became the catalyst and helped drive trade on Tuesday.
Consequently, shares of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL rose 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively. Amazon currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
JOLTS Report Shows Growth in Job Openings
Per the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report, job openings in the United States rose 221,000 to 8.14 million in May. Data for April was revised lower to show 7.919 million vacancies compared to the previously reported 8.059 million. Also, there were 1.22 vacancies for every unemployed person in May, unchanged from April. This vacancy-to-unemployment ratio is the lowest since 2021.
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