Stocks rebound on Wall Street, S&P 500 trades above recordWED, AUG 12 2020
Stocks marched broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday, briefly nudging the S&P 500 above its all-time closing high set in February, before the coronavirus pandemic led to a historic market plunge.
The benchmark index notched a 1.4% gain, its eighth in nine days. It ended within 0.2% of its record high from Feb. 19, before the coronavirus prompted the sudden shutdown of much of the economy.
Big technology stocks led the way higher once again. Health care and communication services stocks also had a strong showing. The rally followed gains for stocks across Europe and much of Asia, while Treasury yields continued their sharp increase after a report on inflation came in higher than expected for the second straight day.
The S&P 500 rose 46.66 points to 3,380.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 289.93 points, or 1%, to 27,976.84. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, climbed 229.42 points, or 2.1%, to 11,012.24. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks picked up 8.15 points, or 0.5%, to 1,583.25.
The U.S. stock market is on the edge of erasing the last of the losses taken after the coronavirus pandemic crushed the economy into recession, even though the economy is still hobbling despite some recent improvements. In March, the S&P 500 had been down nearly 34% from its record.
Much of the rebound has been due to massive amounts of support from the Federal Reserve, which has slashed interest rates to nearly zero and propped up far-ranging corners of the bond market to keep the economy’s head above water. The ultra-low interest rates mean investors are getting paid very little to own bonds, which pushes some into stocks, boosting their prices.
“Economic data is coming in much better than expected; the earnings season is much better than expected,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors. “You couple all of those things with the massive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus taking place. That’s why we’ve seen the (market) rally so quickly off its low and at the magnitude that we’ve seen.”
Wall Street’s gains on Wednesday were widespread, with two-thirds of the stocks in the S&P 500 higher.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.67% from 0.66% late Tuesday. It's jumped sharply since sitting at 0.57% late Monday.
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