Wall Street Poised For Second Day Of Gains While Bank Of Japan Makes Reassurances; Dollar Strengthens Against Yen, Crude Prices Surge: What's Driving Markets Wednesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | August 07, 2024 12:46pm

The U.S. stock market is poised for its second consecutive day of gains, aiming to reverse the sell-off that occurred through Monday as investors assess the ongoing earnings season and welcome reassuring comments from the Bank of Japan.

Deputy Gov. Shinichi Uchida stated the central bank will avoid raising interest rates during times of market volatility, easing fears sparked last week by a rate hike from the Bank of Japan coupled with growing concerns about a potential U.S. recession.

The U.S. dollar surged 2% against the Japanese yen, marking its largest one-day increase since June 2022 and reigniting trader interest in the yen-dollar carry trade strategy.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were 1% by midday trading in New York. The Dow Jones and the Russell 2000 notched smaller gains, up 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.

Treasury yields rose again by about 5 basis points across the curve, sending bond-related assets down. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT) fell 0.4% after tumbling 2.2% on Tuesday.

Oil shined among commodities, with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light crude soaring 3.6% to $75 a barrel, after the Energy Information Administration report showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. Natural gas prices were also up by over 4% amid forecasts of warmer weather leading speculators to expect higher electricity consumption for cooling. As a result, energy stocks rallied.

Gold inched 0.2% higher, while silver slightly eased by 0.1%. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was flat for the day.

Wednesday’s Performance In Major U.S. Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day %chg
Nasdaq 100	18,276.87	1.1%
S&P 500	5,296.84	1.1%
Dow Jones	39,279.71	0.7%
Russell 2000	2,072.52	0.5%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was trading 2.2% higher to $528.42.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.7% to $392.87.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 1.2% to $444.83.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) rose 0.6% to $205.57.
• 10 out of 11 sectors of the S&P 500 saw gains, with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) leading the way, up by 2%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLV) was the only one in the red, down by 0.2%.

Wednesday’s Stock Movers

• Enphase Energy Corp. (NASDAQ:ENPH) rallied over 6%, after BNP Paribas upgraded the stock to Outperform with $144 price target.

Stocks reacting to company earnings included:

• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), down 4.3%.
• Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) down over 12%,
• Axon Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) up over 18%,
• CVS Health Corp. (NYSE:CVS) down 0.4%,
• Emerson Electric Company (NYSE:EMR) down 5.6%,
• Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) up over 25%,
• Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) up 8.9%,
• Hilton Worlwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) down 1.7%,
• Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) down over 6%,
• Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) down over 5%,
• Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) down 3.6%,
• Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) up 23%,
• Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) down 16.04%
• Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), down 2.61%,
• Wynn Resort Ltd. (NASDAQ:WYNN) down 0.22%.

Companies reporting after the close are AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP), Bumble Inc. (NASDAQ:BMBL), Beyond Meat, Inc. (NASDAQ:BYND), Blink Charging Co. (NASDAQ:BLNK), Fastly Inc. (NYSE:FSLY), Forward Air Corp (NASDAQ:FWRD), HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE:HUBS), Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC), Marathon Oil Corp (NYSE:MRO), Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST), Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY), Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) and Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD).

Read Now:

• Mortgage Rates Fall To 15-Month Lows, Boost Homebuyer Demand As Federal Reserve Hints At Rate Cuts

The image was made using artificial intelligence MidJourney.

Posted In: $BTC ABNB AMGN APP AXON BLNK BMBL BYND CVS DIA DIS EMR ENPH FSLY FTNT FWRD HLT HOOD HUBS ILMN