Wall Street: Megacap stocks drives Wednesday’s spike in US equity indices

By Sneha Sengupta On Apr 17, 2024

Megacap stocks and strong corporate earnings drove Wednesday’s spike in US stock indices. The S&P 500 was up 20.02 points, or 0.40 percent, at 5,071.43, the Nasdaq Composite was up 71.46 points, or 0.45 percent, at 15,936.71 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 146.74 points, or 0.39 percent, at 37,945.71 at 9:41 a.m. ET.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 150.70 points, or 0.40%, to 37,949.67 at the opening bell. The Nasdaq Composite rose 77.03 points, or 0.49%, to 15,942.29. The S&P 500 was up 17.56 points, or 0.35%, at 5,068.97. Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft all saw increases in their share prices of between 0.4% and 0.8%.

The stock of United Airlines increased 9.4% after the company predicted higher-than-expected quarterly results.

Following the release of a higher quarterly earnings, Omnicom Group saw a 3% increase. JB Hunt Transport Services fell 6.4% as a result of the transportation company’s first-quarter results falling short of Wall Street forecasts. After missing Wall Street projections for the first quarter profit, travelers also saw a 6.7% decline.

Later on Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped from 4.67 percent to 4.62%. From 4.99 percent to 4.95 percent, the 2-year yield decreased.

The FTSE 100 in Britain increased by 0.8% to 7,882.81. The CAC 40 for France increased by 1.5% to 8,051.44. The DAX in Germany increased by 0.7% to 17,894.29.

At 4,965.06, the Euro Stoxx 50 increased by 1.0%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index remained unchanged at 16,251.84 in Asia. China’s Shanghai Composite reached 3,071.38, up 2.1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.3% to 37,961.80.

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US crude prices for May fell $1.11, or 1.3 percent, to $84.25 a barrel, while Brent futures for June fell $1.21, or 1.3 percent, to $88.81 a barrel at 1330 GMT.

Gold

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By 9:40 a.m. ET (1340 GMT), spot gold had increased by 0.4% to $2,391.10 an ounce.US gold futures decreased by 0.1% to $2,405.40. At $28.60, spot silver increased 1.8%.