Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during morning trading on March 13, 2023 in New York City.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. stocks rose Wednesday after the S&P 500 notched its third straight day of losses, as the corporate earnings season ramped up.
The broad index climbed 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded higher by 200 points, or 0.5%.
Material stocks led the S&P 500 higher on Wednesday, with the sector gaining nearly 1%. All sectors besides traded in the green besides real estate, which slipped about 0.4%.
United Airlines climbed more than 8% after posting a narrower-than-expected loss and beating on revenue. J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell more than 7% after missing analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines.
The new earnings season is off to a promising start. While less than 10% of S&P 500-listed companies have reported financials so far, more than three out of every four have surpassed Wall Street expectations.
Those moves come after the Dow was able to break a six-day losing streak on Tuesday, lifted by UnitedHealth‘s post-earnings rally. But Tuesday marked the third straight day of declines for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.
Stocks were choppy on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the Federal Reserve needs to see more progress on the inflation front before the U.S. central bank is likely to begin cutting rates. The comments did little to assuage the market’s pessimism, said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst with Baird.
Mayfield sees equities trading mostly range-bound in the near term, with an exception being if any geopolitical event spikes oil prices even higher.
“The primary headwind is the hawkish repricing of Fed expectations. I don’t think Fed Chair Powell did much to ease those concerns today, perhaps intentionally,” he told CNBC. “The market is getting to a place where it’s questioning whether there will be a rate cut at all in 2024.”
