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Summary
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.20% to 31522.75, S&P 500 slipped 0.06%.
- Energy, industrials, financials, basic materials, and consumer non-cyclicals lead.
- Cold blitz shoots up demand for natural gas.
US stock markets ended mixed on Tuesday in anticipation of positive retail earnings and steps by House Democrats to expedite a legislative version of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus.
The S&P 500 was down 0.06% to 3932.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.20% to 31522.75. The NASDAQ Composite Index rose 0.34% to 14047.50 and the small-cap Russell 2000 shed 0.70% to 2273.08.
Investors pinned their hopes on an early economic rebound as House Democrats accelerated efforts to bring out a legislative version of the stimulus package. These positive sentiments were further supported by optimism that more COVID-19 drugs would be rolled out later this week.
The declining jobless rates, coupled with reductions in new COVID cases have raised hopes of a speedy recovery, lifting the markets. President Biden had announced last week that more orders were placed for 200 million vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, which would reduce supply woes.
Furthermore, hopes of strong retail earnings from Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), and others this week buoyed the markets. A severe cold blitz, which swept the US over the weekend, and killed several people in car crashes, shot up the demand for natural gas for heating homes.
The prices of natural-gas futures surged in early trade on Tuesday. Gasoline and Brent-crude futures also saw price gains as many refiners had shut their operations due to the cold weather.
Meanwhile, positive sales and stock gains helped the momentum going. US software company Palantir Technologies Inc. reported a 40% increase in sales in the second quarter.
Shares of auto supplier BorgWarner were trading high in the premarket session after it announced to purchase equities worth $884 million from German battery-maker Akasol. Tuesday’s session was led by energy, industrials, financials, basic materials, consumer non-cyclicals, and technology.
Image Source: Pixabay
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Top Gainers
Top performers on S&P 500 included Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (9.24%), Carnival Corp (8.84%), Cboe Global Markets Inc (7.67%), and Marathon Oil Corp (6.49%). On NASDAQ, top performers were Socket Mobile Inc (720.99%), Pyxis Tankers Inc (120.92%), Luokung Technology Corp (83.65%), and Torchlight Energy Resources Inc (57.02%). On Dow Jones, Salesforce.Com Inc (4.00%), JPMorgan Chase & Co (2.68%), Boeing Co (2.68%), and Chevron Corp (2.47%) were among the leaders.
Top Losers
Top laggards on S&P 500 included Allegion PLC (-7.18%), NRG Energy Inc (-6.37%), Enphase Energy Inc (-5.85%), and Paycom Software Inc (-5.44%). On NASDAQ, Cortexyme Inc (-36.17%), Bluebird bio Inc (-35.99%), Ehang Holdings Ltd (-32.71%), and Inhibrx Inc (-31.59%) were among the top losers. On Dow Jones, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (-2.40%), Amgen Inc (-1.63%), Apple Inc (-1.59%), and Cisco Systems Inc (-1.56%) were among the top laggards.
Image Source: Refinitiv, S&P 500 YTD price chart, 16 February 2021
Volume Movers
Some of the top volume movers included Apple Inc (12.31mn), Intel Corp (4.55mn), Microsoft Corp (4.41mn), Cisco Systems Inc (2.91mn), Verizon Communications Inc (2.66mn), General Electric Co (7.26mn), Bank of America Corp (6.28mn), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (6.26mn), Carnival Corp (6.13mn), and Ford Motor Co (6.03mn).
Futures & Commodities
Gold futures were down 1.50% to $1,795.55 per ounce, silver was up 0.08% to $27.305 per ounce, while copper was up 1.30% to $3.8373.
Brent oil futures for April delivery were up 0.21% to $63.43 and WTI crude futures for March delivery were up 1.16% to $60.16.
Bond Market
The yield on the US 30-year Treasury bond was up 4.35% to 2.091. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond was up 8.80% to 1.306.
US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% to 90.530.
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Cryptocurrency
In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin sprinted over the $50,000 mark for the first time, triggering a brief rally of others in the category such as Ethereum, Polkadot, and Teher. Bitcoin has doubled its value in the past two months as more institutions, such as Bank of New York Mellon Corp., and Mastercard Inc., have agreed to accept the coin as a financial asset.
Markets have also reacted positively to the Biden administration’s decision to suspend the Trump-era rules against some of the Chinese companies. Consequently, ad revenues of Chinese video app TikTok have surged as US companies resumed advertising on its platform, according to reports.
In another development, executives of several Wall Street brokerage firms were due to testify before a House committee next week regarding the market volatility created by social media groups.
