Trader Fred DeMarco works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday as investors reviewed encouraging jobs market data and a strong batch of corporate earnings reports. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
A broad rally on Wall Street pushed stocks higher Thursday, nudging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes to record highs.
The gains reversed the market's modest losses from a day earlier. Despite a choppy week of trading, the major indexes are on pace for weekly gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, eclipsing its previous all-time high set Tuesday. Technology stocks, retailers and other consumer-facing companies, and communications stocks helped lift the market. Banks made solid gains as long-term bond yields rose, which lenders rely on to charge higher interest rates on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.21% from 1.18% late Wednesday. Only Health care and materials stocks fell.
Encouraging jobs data and a strong batch of corporate earnings reports helped put investors in a buying mood. Traders were also looking ahead to the government's latest monthly national jobs report Friday morning, which should provide insight into how the labor market is faring amid a surge in cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant.
“You do have a little bit of trepidation and concern around how the Covid flareups are going to impact things,” said Andrew Mies, chief investment officer at investment advisory firm 6 Meridien. "I don't think that anybody has a great idea of what the magnitude of this could look like if we go out two or three weeks.”
The S&P 500 index rose 26.44 points to 4,429.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 271.58 points, or 0.8%, to 35,064.25. The Nasdaq climbed 114.58 points, or 0.8%, to 14,895.12.
Smaller company stocks outpaced the broader market in a sign that investors are feeling more confident about economic growth. The Russell 2000 rose 39.69 points, or 1.8%, to 2,236.01.
Wall Street got another glimpse of the recovering jobs market after the Labor Department reported that unemployment claims — a proxy for layoffs — dropped last week by 14,000. The generally encouraging report follows a weak report from payroll processor ADP on Wednesday showing that the private sector added jobs at a much slower pace than expected in July.
The labor market has lagged other areas of the economy during the recovery from the virus pandemic. Investors will get a more comprehensive picture on Friday when the Labor Department releases its July jobs report.
Investors also weighed another batch of earnings reports. Underwear maker Hanesbrands jumped 6.3% after reporting solid second-quarter financial results. Booking Holdings rose 5.9% after it reported solid revenue.
Several companies that benefited from the shift in consumer habits during the height of the pandemic slipped after releasing disappointing results or forecasts. Online crafts marketplace Etsy fell 9.7% after giving investors a weak sales forecast as more people return to shopping in person. Video-streaming service Roku shed 4% after active accounts and streaming hours fell short of analysts' forecasts.
Weber, the pioneering grill maker, jumped 17.9% in its stock market debut.
Jay Hatfield, Chief Investment Officer at Infrastructure Capital Management, joined Closing Bell to break down the big factors leading to this latest market meltdown, as inflation and an upcoming Fed policy decision affect investor sentiment.
Tech apprenticeship platform Multiverse became a unicorn with a $1.7 billion valuation, after raising $220 million in a Series D round. As companies across the country face challenges in hiring and retaining tech talent, Multiverse says it's trying to offer a solution with a new way to train and hire workers that can serve as an alternative to college and corporate training. Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America of Multiverse, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Bitcoin's price has fallen below $24,000, its lowest level since December 2020. Matt Hougan, CIO at Bitwise Asset Management, joined Cheddar News to discuss the future of crypto amid the latest high-profile point of concern, the halting of withdrawals at Celsius Network. "Last month we saw Luna collapse. This month we're seeing Celsius possibly collapsing," he said. "So this stress test is finding weaknesses in the crypto ecosystem and it will continue until we get to a strong foundation from which crypto can recover."
An analyst at JP Morgan is predicting massive future growth for Apple in its music and gaming divisions — to the tune of more than $8 billion in revenue by 2025. Cheddar News anchors Kristen Scholer and Hena Doba discuss the glowing forecast for the tech giant.
Catching you up on today’s top headlines with Bitcoin falling below $24,000, U.S. gas prices reaching above $5 on average, Tesla shareholders voting on a 3-for-1 stock split, and more.
On this episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Gemma Burgess, CEO of Ferguson Partners, explains what people are looking for in an employer, and how to convey positive work culture to potential employees; Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, breaks down how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home; Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, discusses Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, joins Cheddar to discuss how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home.
Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, joins Cheddar to discuss Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Consumer prices saw an 8.6 percent jump in May, with fuel prices showing the biggest surge, climbing 17 percent last month. As inflation continues to climb to levels not seen in 40 years, President Biden took to calling out ExxonMobil and other major oil companies, accusing them of holding back production while continuing to collect huge profits at the cost of the consumer. Mark Avallone, the president of Potomac Wealth Advisors, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. “They have reduced long-term expenditures. But why? Because the world is going to alternative energy and as consumers, if we thought that that welcome change to alternatives was going to happen without pain, we might have been mistaken," he said. "The less investment they make in oil because they're getting ready for a new world of electric vehicles, the less we're going to be prepared for oil shocks such as the one we got when Russia invaded Ukraine."
