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Stock Market News for Apr 8, 2022

Wall Street ended higher on Thursday, led by tech-stocks in a late-session rally. Investors cautiously monitored the latest updates from the Fed amid concerns about rising inflation. The 10-year teasury yield reached its highest level in three years. All the three major indexes ended in positive territory.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.3% or 87.06 points to close at 34,583.57. Sixteen components of the 30-stock index ended in the green, one remained unchanged, while 13 remained in red.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.1% or 8.48 points to close at 13,897.30 as tech-stocks staged a comeback.

The S&P 500 gained 0.4% or 19.06 points to end at 4,500.21. Seven out of the 11 broad sectors of the benchmark index closed in the green.

The Healthcare Select Sector SPDR (XLV), the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) gained 1.9%, 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively, while the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) dropped 0.9%.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 2.5% to 21.55. A total of 11.5 billion shares were traded on Thursday, lower than the last 20-session average of 13 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.11-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.45-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

Investors Mull Over FOMC Minutes

The FOMC minutes from mid-March that were released on Wednesday revealed that the Fed was gearing up to hike interest rates and reduce its stockpile of bonds and mortgage-backed securities in order to rein in the highest inflation in 40 years. The Fed’s plans are to not only raise the target policy rate to half percentage point but also to push it to a "neutral posture," of approximately 2.4%. There have been concerns that these policy moves could lead to a major slowdown of the economy, sending it to a recession.

Higher interest rates can make growth stocks, like those of the big tech companies, look overvalued compared to their earnings. Tech-stocks have been big drags on the market over the last couple of days, but the sector began to recover by mid-afternoon, helping the broader market recover from an early slide.

This saw stocks like Tesla, Inc. TSLA and HP Inc. HPQ bouncing back to ened the day higher by 1.1% and 14.8%, respectively. HP carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The 10-year Treasury Yield Keeps Reversing Course

On Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 2.65%, a three-year high, putting the benchmark rate well above the 2-year bond. Investors kept monitoring the bond market as the 2-year bond had recently been hovering above the 10-year triggering a yield curve inversion, which is often seen as a precursor of recession.

Ukraine Situation Keeps Investors Cautious

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Ukraine had presented Moscow with an unacceptable draft peace deal, while the U.S. Senate voted to remove "most favored nation" trade status for Russia and ban Russian oil imports.

Economic Data

The Labor Department said on Thursday that initial jobless claims fell to 166,000, decreasing 5,000 for the week ending Apr 2. The previous week's level was revised down by 31,000 from 202,000 to 171,000.
This is the lowest level since 1968. The four-week moving average also decreased to 170,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 178,000.

However, continuing claims came in at 1,523,000, increasing 17,000 from previous week’s revised level. The previous week's numbers were revised up by 199,000 from1,307,000 to 1,506,000. The 4-week moving average came in at 1,541,250, an increase of 35,250 from the previous week's revised average.

U.S. Consumer Credit in February surged by an all-time record of $41.9 billion from January as the Fed released its monthly report. January’s change was revised up to $8.9 billion.


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