In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, traders Robert Charmak, left, and Orel Partush confer on the floor, Thursday, March 24, 2022. Stocks edged higher in morning trading on Wall Street as a streak of cautious trading continues on world markets. (Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange via AP)
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
Technology companies led a broad rally for stocks on Wall Street Thursday, reversing most of the major indexes' losses from a day earlier and extending the market's recent run of uneven trading.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4%, more than making up for its pullback a day earlier. More than 85% of the stocks in the benchmark index rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.9%.
The latest gains pulled the S&P 500 out of the red for the week. The Nasdaq is also on pace for a weekly gain, while the Dow is down slightly for the week after the indexes alternated between gains and losses over the past few days.
“There’s a little bit of tug-of-war right now ... and investors are just looking for direction,” said Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer for wealth & investment management at Wells Fargo.
The S&P 500 rose 63.92 points to 4,520.16, while the Dow gained 349.44 points to 34,707.94. The Nasdaq climbed 269.23 to 14,191.84.
Small company stocks also rallied. The Russell 2000 rose 23.24 points, or 1.1%, to 2,075.44.
Technology stocks accounted for the biggest share by far of the gains in the S&P 500, followed closely by communication companies. Many Big Tech companies have outsized values that tend to sway the broader market in either direction. Chipmaker Nvidia vaulted 9.8% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Facebook parent, Meta, rose 2.9%.
Health care stocks also had some of the strongest gains. Insurers UnitedHealth Group rose 2% and Anthem gained 2.5%.
Stocks indexes have been up-and-down after coming off a strong rally last week. Investors are trying to gauge how the economy and corporate profits will be affected this year as the Federal Reserve moves to raise interest rates in order to tame surging inflation.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added more uncertainty to the global economic outlook, driving energy and other commodity prices higher. The fluctuation in energy prices has been one factor pushing and pulling the broader stock market.
Crude oil prices slipped Thursday after jumping a day earlier. U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 2.3% to settle at $112.34 per barrel. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.1% to settle at $119.03. Overall, global oil prices are up more than 50% in 2022 on persistently rising inflation and concerns about crimped supplies because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Investors around the world had their eye on NATO and European leaders, which held a summit Thursday. G-7 nations are restricting the Russian Central Bank’s use of gold in transactions and the U.S. announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and entities.
Dozens of nations, including the U.S. and much of Europe, say they’re united in seeking to “radically” reduce imports of Russian oil and gas.
Sanctions have so far gutted the Ruble's value and prompted Russia's stock exchange to close nearly a month ago. The exchange reopened Thursday under heavy restrictions to prevent the kind of massive selloff that occurred in anticipation of crushing financial and economic sanctions from Western nations.
Wall Street is monitoring the latest developments on the conflict as it tries to determine how much it could worsen inflation and potentially crimp global economic growth. Businesses and consumers have been facing increasing costs for materials and goods which has prompted central banks to raise interest rates in order to temper the impact from inflation.
Bond yields have been rising overall as the market prepares for higher interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.36% from 2.31% late Wednesday.
“Markets are clearly signaling a deceleration in GDP growth and earnings growth,” Cronk said.
Investors received an encouraging update on the labor market's continued recovery. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years. The upbeat report adds to data earlier this month that showed employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, the largest monthly total since July.
Bobby Zagotta, CEO of Bitstamp USA, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses what he expects to see from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies amid a volatile period in the market, and explains how his crypto exchange is helping investors.
Markets started the week on a rocky note: the major indexes at most points during the day were double digits off of their highs, on the path to their worst performances since March 2020 and for the Nasdaq, since October 2008. Investors were skittish about the Federal Reserve's meeting this week, where the central bank is expected to announce more details about its plans to hike interest rates and taper asset purchasing this year. Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's market meltdown, why investors were feeling pressure, what to expect from the Fed, and more.
AT&T announced it's offering two tiers of high-speed internet, 2 gigs, and 5 gigs, to its fiber customers in more than 70 metro regions. AT&T Consumer CEO Thaddeus Arroyo joined Cheddar to talk about the newly available speed upgrades for 5.2 million of its customers, and where the rollout goes from here. "Over the course of 2022, we'll rapidly continue to retrofit the rest of the base," he said. "And importantly now is, as we build-out, we've talked about building out to cover 30 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025, we're going to continue to ensure that every new location that we stand up has this multi gig capability."
Autonomous driving tech company Waymo is partnering with transportation and logistics business J.B. Hunt. The two firms are teaming up to bring autonomous shipping to the highways. Head of commercialization for trucking at Waymo, Charlie Jatt, joined Cheddar to discuss how the companies are combining their strengths. "We, of course at Waymo, are working on the technology side of affairs, and J. B Hunt brings critical operational and commercial expertise," Jatt said. "And together we're going to work to deploy the first fully autonomous Class 8 truck hauling goods for one of their customers in the coming years in Texas."
Amid a rough week for Peloton's stock, as well as its image — its bikes being the cause of death for two fictional TV characters now — an activist investor is calling for a change in upper management. Chief investment officer of Blackwell, Jason Aintabi, petitioned in a letter that Peloton’s CEO, John Foley, must be fired. Joining Cheddar to discuss the ultimatum, Hatem Dhiab, a portfolio manager and managing partner at Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management noted the conditions leading to the demand for Foley's removal. "The stock is basically 85 percent below the high," he said. "I think there is some change that needs to happen, and that's just the reality."
Talent Resources Sports is partnering with ABG Entertainment to host Sports Illustrated The Party during the weekend of Super Bowl LVI, featuring musical performances by Kygo, Jack Harlow, and other guests. David Spencer and Mike Heller, co-CEOs and founders of Talent Resources Sports, joined Cheddar to discuss the details behind putting on the event. “We’re just really pumped that after all of the things that got canceled people will finally have a place to let some steam off in such an exciting moment, such a charged moment with the Super Bowl,” Mike Heller said about putting on the live event after previous COVID-related cancellations.
Mayors in cities like Miami and New York City are considering introducing cryptocurrencies as a way to reduce economic inequality. Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez has even pushed for distributing Bitcoin dividends to the city's inhabitants.
As companies look toward the metaverse concept to further move their companies online, Shep Ogden, CEO and co-founder of Offbeat Media, spoke with Cheddar about questions investors should be posing to businesses like how customized the metaverse experience will be. "One of the best things that people can do, or companies can do, to be competitive is really find those influencers within the community that are very deep in the space," Ogden added.
