Yahoo Finance Stock Market News for June 13, 2024
Wall Street closed mixed on Wednesday, driven by tech stocks. A couple of indexes hovered in unchartered territories based on softer-than-expected inflation numbers but came down after the Fed released its outlook. Two of the three major stock indexes ended in the green, while one ended in the red.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) slid 35.21 points, or 0.1%, to close at 38,712.21. Twenty-two components of the 30-stock index ended in negative territory, while eight ended in positive.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 264.89 points, or 1.5%, to close at 17,608.44.
The S&P 500 advanced 45.71 points, or 0.9%, to close at 38,712.21. However, six of the 11 broad sectors of the benchmark index closed in the red. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP), the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLRE) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) fell 1.1%, 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) gained 2.2%.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 6.3% to 12.04. A total of 11.8 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 12.7 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 2.86-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 1.78-to-1 ratio.
CPI From May Remains Unchanged and Drives the Market
Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for May was unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.3% in April. Over the last 12 months, the all-items index, better known as headline inflation, increased 3.3% before seasonal adjustment. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% in May after jumping 0.3% the preceding month.
Cheaper gasoline prices are being cited as one of the main reasons behind this unexpected inflation reading. In fact, the numbers came in as a major boost for investors and markets did extremely well to start the day off. Market participants concluded that these numbers would push the Fed toward at least a couple of rate cuts before the year ended, and Nasdaq and the S&P 500 breached historic highs during trading.
However, this optimism arising from the inflation numbers was balanced out a bit by a stoic Fed, with Jerome Powell not promising more than one rate cut this year. While the two benchmark indexes mentioned earlier still ended the day on a third consecutive record closing high, the Dow ended virtually unchanged.
Talks of an economic revival always seem to have a positive effect on mega-cap growth stocks like tech, and true to form, the tech sector led the gains of the day. Consumer Discretionaries also did pretty well. Consequently, shares of Apple Inc. AAPL and Marvell Technology, Inc. MRVL gained 2.9% and 4.2%, respectively. Both currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Economic Data
Per a government report, for the week ended Jun 7, 2024, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 3.7 million barrels from the week prior. Last week, they had increased by 1.2 million barrels.
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