Market Recap: Wednesday, July 15

The three major averages finished higher on Wednesday, after a strong set of earnings results from companies such as Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth before market open added to earlier hopes for a coronavirus vaccine after news from Moderna. The Dow Jones Industrial average and Russell 2000 both logged their sixth straight day of gains. The Final Round panel discusses the day’s market action.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to "The Final Round" here on Yahoo Finance. I'm Seana Smith. As stocks on track to close the trading day to the upside, we have the Dow now up over 200 points, the S&P also up just around the 1%, and the NASDAQ adding to gains during the final hour of trading, up just around 0.5%. The rally that we've seen in the Dow-- the down up over 200 points-- a lot of that has to do with the gains that we're seeing in Raytheon Technologies, in Boeing, and Disney. Those three are the top performers.

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And that does it for the trading day today. Again, all three of the major averages closing in the green. We have the Dow up 225 points, the S&P up just around nearly 1%, and the NASDAQ up just around 0.6%, the Dow recording its fourth straight day of gains. Taking a look at the sector action that we're seeing today-- industrials, energy, and financials leading the way. The gains that we're seeing in the financial sector-- obviously, the big headline out this morning, Goldman's big beat on earnings.

But it's not just the big banks that we're seeing move to the upside today. A lot of the regional banks are also rallying. The S&P regional banking ETF, the KRE, that closing up just around 6% today. Then we also have to mention the rally that we're seeing in small caps, in the Russell 2000. The Russell 2000 closing up nearly 4%.

And I mentioned at the leadership that we're seeing energy today-- oil getting a big boost. Oil hitting a four-month high, and this comes after crude supply posting its biggest decline in just about a year. I want to bring in my co-host for the next hour, Myles Udland. And Myles, when we take a look at today's action, gains heading into the close, the Dow closing up over 200 points. But I almost think the real story today is this rally that we've seen and a lot of the small-cap stocks.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I mean, the story is just the broadening of the rally, right? So today, we saw the small caps pick up the slack. But even among the S&P sectors, we still had materials, industrials-- industrials that the biggest performer, biggest outperformer today, up 2.5%. You know, all the sectors that we have called on for some time to get involved, they continue to do as much.

And I think, as we discussed during yesterday's program, the thing with this market and given how it's traded during the coronavirus period, is you always have to keep an open mind about what could happen. And you can't get too wedded to any one thing about, oh, well, this should happen because of, you know, what the data say or because of, you know, what case counts are in Arizona, whatever it is, right? And the market right now is suggesting that the balance of risks remains to the upside.

I think record highs is more likely in the S&P, probably, than another corrective phase, and that is just what the market action has been saying for some time in the last two days. Especially, again, 6% decline in the NASDAQ from Monday morning to Tuesday morning, there's your correction. And since then, we've been off to the races. And I think that while there was so much bearishness on the take, you know, Monday, Tuesday, like, that's just not how the market is acting right now, especially given what we saw in volatility and again, you know, coming back to the leadership sectors.