Stock Market News for Nov 01, 2023
Market News
Wall Street closed higher on Tuesday as investors digested mixed third-quarter earnings results. Investors are looking forward to the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s November FOMC meeting, which begins on Wednesday. All three major stock indexes were in positive territory.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.4% or 123.9 points to close at 33,052.87. Notably, 25 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory, while 4 in negative zone and 1 remained unchanged.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 61.76 points or 0.5% to close at 12,851.24.
The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to end at 4,193.8. All 11 broad sectors of the benchmark ended in positive territory. The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR (XLRE), the Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLV), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY), the Industrials Select Sector SPDR (XLI) and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) rose 2%, 1.1%, 0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.6%,respectively.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 8.15% to 18.14. A total of 10.67 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, higher than the last 20 sessions. The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week high and 15 new 52-week lows. The Nasdaq Composite registered 16 new 52-week highs and 262 new 52-week lows.
Investors Await Outcome of Fed Meeting
Investors looked forward to the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s meeting, which begins on Oct 31. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged in the current range of 5.25-5.50%.
Recent economic data, like the robust 4.9% growth in the third quarter and strong consumer spending, has exceeded expectations. This has raised concerns that if the economy continues to do well, it might be more challenging to lower inflation. The Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the "core" PCE, which showed a 0.3% increase in prices in September, the largest in four months, with annual price increases slightly slowing to 3.7% from 3.8% in August.
Additionally, long-term Treasury yields have risen to levels not seen in many years, with the 10-year reaching 5% and the 30-year surpassing 5% for much of October. All these factors are being closely monitored as they can influence the Fed's policy decisions. This has once again raised concerns that even if the Fed keeps its interest rates unchanged in its November meeting, more rate hikes could be implemented this year.
Q3 Earnings Results
Insperity Inc. NSP reported quarterly earnings of $1.46 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.85 per share. The company posted revenues of $1.55 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.29%. Consequently, shares of Insperity rose 9.7%. NSP carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
BP p.l.c. BP came up with earnings of $1.15 per share for third-quarter 2023, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.37 per share. The company posted revenues of $54,016 million, lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $66,288 million. As a result, shares of BP declined 4.6%.
Economic Data
The Conference Board reported that the consumer confidence index rose to 102.6 in October from September’s revised reading of 104.3.
Case-Shiller Home Prices increased 0.4% month over month in August for the 10-City Composite. Year over year, prices rose 3%. For the 20-City Composite, prices increased 2.2% year over year in August, while it gained 0.2% month over month.
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