Stocks started to recover on Wednesday following two consecutive days of broader market declines as market participants poured back into recovery plays. Companies continued to post mostly better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but those reports failed to really lift a market already near record highs.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.93% or +38.50 points to 4,173.44
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.94% or +316.93 points to 34,138.23
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.19% or +163.95 points to 13,950.22
For Stocks, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) shares dropped over 7% after the streaming giant reported highly disappointing quarterly subscriber additions. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE: NCLH) led gains in reopening names after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) upgraded the stock; Carnival (NYSE: CCL) and Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) each rose.
For Sector Performance, sectors were mostly higher by the session's end, with Materials (NYSE: XLB), Energy (NYSE: XLE) and Financials (NYSE: XLF) leading gains. Only Communication Services (NYSE: XLC) and Utilities (NYSE: XLU) ended in the red.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) soared higher earlier in Wednesday's session before falling in later trade after Canada's central bank announced that it could start an interest rate hike in 2022. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six rival currencies, dropped 0.1% in afternoon trade after gaining as much as 0.24% during the session. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices rose on Wednesday as U.S. Treasury yields declined. Spot gold increased by 0.8% at $1,791.51 per ounce in afternoon trade, while U.S. gold futures rose 0.7% to settle at $1,790.40 per ounce. Crude oil futures declined for a second day on Wednesday following a surprise increase in U.S. crude inventories and global coronavirus pandemic concerns. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) dropped by 2% to $65.27 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) for June settled 2.11% lower at $61.35 each.
For Thursday, traders will focus on fresh data for weekly unemployment claims as well as corporate quarterly earnings from companies like AT&T (NYSE: T), Snap (NYSE: SNAP) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).