Stocks rose on Wednesday, with another tech share rally surging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to fresh record highs. Market sentiment was encouraged by positive coronavirus vaccine news, as well as strong economic and corporate earnings data.
Coronavirus vaccine frontrunner Moderna
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that durable goods orders soared 11.2% in July, more than double the 4.8% increase that consensus economists expected in the preliminary report. Durable goods orders rose only 7.7% in June.
"The sharp rise in durable goods orders last month was flattered by a surge in transport orders, but cure orders are nevertheless almost back to the pre-pandemic level, suggesting that the recovery in business equipment investment has been V-shaped," Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Major Stock News, Salesforce.com
For Sector Performance, industries ended Wednesday's session split. The performance gainers were Communication Services +3.71%, Information Technology +2.05%, Consumer Discretionary $1.46%, Material +0.97%, Consumer Staples +0.10%, and Industrials +0.05%. The performance losers were Energy -2.23%, Utilities -1.20%, Real Estate -0.74%, Financials -0.48% and Health Care -0.12%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Thursday, market participants will focus on Powell's highly anticipated speech on the central bank's monetary policy framework review. The Labor Department is also set to release weekly unemployment claims on Thursday.