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Summary
- S&P 500 and Dow Jones end flat after early losses to retain their gains.
- NASDAQ shrugs off a downward trend ahead of earnings reports.
- Tech, financial, healthcare, and real estate sectors continue their positive momentum.
S&P 500 and Dow Jones saw several ups and down during the trading session, dragged by the cyclical and utilities sectors, to end flat on Tuesday. The tech-heavy NASDAQ held its ground to shrug off the downward trend, as the anticipation of the upcoming earnings reports and the government’s COVID-19 spending plan weighed on the investors’ minds.
S&P 500 was down 0.11% to 3911.23, while Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.03% to 31375.83. NASDAQ Composite Index moved up by 0.14% to 14,007.70. Russell 2000 was up 0.40% to 2299.00.
Energy, real estate, academic and educational services, financials, industrials, healthcare, and technology sectors performed well, while consumer cyclical and non-cyclical, and utilities dragged. Investors remained glued on these stocks following their blistering run in the last few days. Markets were also buoyed by the anticipation of the upcoming earnings reports from Cisco Systems, Inc. and Lyft, Inc.
Image Source: © Lessedesignen | Megapixl.com
Cisco and Lyft were scheduled to release their second and fourth quarterly reports, respectively after the markets close. The California-based tech giant Cisco has a market cap of around US$200 billion. The company had announced a quarterly cash dividend of US$0.36 in December 2020.
Lyft has a market cap of around US$16 billion. In its third-quarter report, ending September 30, 2020, it had reported a revenue boost of 47% to around US$499 million from the previous quarter.
Much of the recent bearish markets have been fuelled by the hopes of increased government spending in the economy. The Biden administration late on Monday gave the go-ahead to a key part of the package that would ensure a weekly US$400 unemployment grant to US households until August.
The administration has pledged to infuse US$1.9 trillion into the economy to create jobs, ramp up health services, assist smaller businesses, and help rebound the larger economy. Markets were boosted by the optimism that a recovery is on track, quicker than what analysts had predicted.
Also read: Why Ainsworth Game Technology (ASX:AGI) expects loss in 1HFY21
Top Gainers
Top movers on S&P 500 included HanesBrands Inc. (22.59%), Gartner Inc (9.71%), NortonLifeLock Inc (5.64%), Everest Re Group Ltd (5.09%). and Twitter Inc (3.66%). On NASDAQ, Applied UV Inc (476.06%), Kalvista Pharmaceuticals Inc (124.98%), Comstock Holding Companies Inc. (111.37%), and Energy Focus Inc (56.58%) were the top movers. Dow Jones' top movers were Boeing Co (2.09%), UnitedHealth Group Inc (1.58%), Mcdonald's Corp (1.21%), and Johnson & Johnson (0.68%).
Top Laggards
Some of the bottom movers on the S&P 500 included Jack Henry & Associates Inc (-8.44%), TechnipFMC PLC (-7.72%0, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (-5.97%), and Fox Corp (-1.95%). Bottom movers on NASDAQ included Aeterna Zentaris Inc (-32.93%), Big Rock Partners Acquisition Corp (-31.04%), and Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (-2.93%). Top laggards on Dow Jones included Walt Disney Co (-1.11%), (-0.96%), Nike Inc (-0.92%), and American Express Co (-0.91%).
Image Source: EODHD/Others, S&P 500 YTD price chart, 10 February 2021
Futures & Commodities
Gold futures for April delivery was up 0.13% to $1836.65 per ounce, silver was down 0.97% to $27.308 per ounce, while copper was up 1.48% to $3.7207.
Brent oil futures for April delivery were up 0.81% to US$61.19 and crude oil WTI futures for March delivery were up 0.76% to US$58.41. Oil prices have seen an upward trend in recent days.
Bonds
The yield on the US 30-year Treasury bond was up 0.31% to 1.950. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond was down 0.13% to 1.159. US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.55% to 90.445.
Also Read: Tesla jumps on Bitcoin bandwagon, how is the crypto currency looking on charts?
Cryptocurrencies
US markets continue to trend higher boosted by a positive earnings season led by health, tech, consumer cyclical, e-commerce, and energy sectors, among others. It was complemented by a surge of cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Bitcoin, which achieved record highs in recent days.
Besides, the influence of social media has never been so strongly felt as these past few weeks have witnessed in the markets. Many ordinary stocks had skyrocketed as traders betted on them through platforms like the Reddit forum, raising market volatility. But optimism also came on hopes that the coronavirus pandemic would be tackled soon as the vaccination programs were accelerated, and more drugs were rolled out.
