Stocks seesawed between gains and losses on Wednesday, following a major decline for market benchmarks in the previous session, as market participants were concerned over growing inflation and risks to global economic growth. The Nasdaq Composite closed at its low of 2022, ending the session at a negative flatline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index both advanced 0.2%.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Fauci says U.S. coming out of the pandemic phase of COVID:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's chief medical advisor and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, expressed optimism about the current state of the pandemic in the United States on Tuesday.
"We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase," Fauci told PBS NewsHour.
Fauci has previously described five phases of the pandemic: First--full blown pandemic, where high levels of the virus is circulating in the population; Second--deceleration, where there are effective treatments and cases start to fall; Third--control, where the virus is becoming endemic in the population; Fourth--elimination, where the threat of the virus is lessened; and Last-eradication, where the virus is no longer spreading.
However, Fauci noted to PBS that the virus will probably never be eradicated due to its nature.
Pending home sales fell for a fifth straight month:
U.S. pending homes sales fell for a fifth consecutive month in March as higher mortgage rates weighed on affordability and consumer's willingness to enter the housing market.
Contract signing declined 1.2% month-to-month in March, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) report published Wednesday. In February, pending home sales dropped by 4%.
"The falling contract signings are implying that multiple offers will soon dissipate and be replaced by much calmer and normalized market conditions," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, in a press statement. "As it stands, the sudden large gains in mortgage rates have reduced the pool of eligible homebuyers, and that has consequently lowered buying activity."
Here's how benchmarks started trading soon after market open:
S&P 500 Index: +0.48% or +20.23 points to 4,195.87
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.41% or +134.66 points to 32,374.84
Nasdaq Composite Index: +0.72% or +90.23 points to 12,582.47
