Stocks ended mostly higher on Wednesday, closing out both March and the first quarter on a high note, as market participants rotated back into high-growth tech names and digested President Joe Biden's new more than $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan.
The Dow and S&P 500 rose 6.6% and 4.3%, respectively, in March, both posting their best monthly gain since November. For the quarter, the Dow and S&P gained 7.8% and 5.8%, respectively, which was their fourth positive quarter in a row. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq was the underperformer for both the month and the quarter, gaining only 0.4% for March and 2.8% over the past three months.
On Wednesday, U.S. private employees added more than half a million jobs in March, according to a report from ADP. While job growth slightly missed consensus expectations, March's gain the sector's best monthly increase since September, signaling some recovery from the harsh winter which shuttered some businesses due to increasing coronavirus U.S. infection rates.
Private payrolls increased by 517,000 in March, ADP said, following a revised gain of 176,000 in February.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.37% or +14.55 points to 3,973.10
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.25% or -83.83 points to 32,983.13
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.54% or +201.48 points to 13,246.87
Shares of Nomura and Credit Suisse added to steep losses on Wednesday as the companies prepared to incur major losses after Archegos Capital defaluted on significant margin calls last week.
For Sector Performance, sectors ended Wednesday's session split with Information Technology (NYSE: XLK) and Consumer Discretionary (NYSE: XLY) leading gains, while Financials (NYSE: XLF) and Energy (NYSE: XLE) led losses.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) rose on Wednesday, reaching a one-year high as investors continued to bet on U.S. economic recovery. The dollar index rose as high as 93.439 against six other currencies, before slipping slightly by 0.015% later in the session. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices gained despite the rising dollar, but climbing U.S. Treasury yields tarnished the metal's growth appeal. Spot gold increased 1.6% to $1,771.27 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 1.8% higher at $1,715.60 per ounce. Crude oil futures dropped on Wednesday on demand outlook concerns. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) for May declined by 0.6% to $63.73 per barrel, while the more active Brent contract for June was down 1.75% at $63.07 each. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) decreased 0.8% to $60.08 per barrel.
For Thursday, market participants will focus on fresh data for weekly jobless claims.