Market Recap: Tuesday, August 4th
Stocks closed mostly higher Tuesday as investors remained focused on renewed signs of corporate and economic stress from the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow and S&P 500 tracked toward a third straight session of gains.
Video Transcript
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SEANA SMITH: And that does it for the trading day here on Wall Street-- gains across the board, with the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ all closing in the green. Welcome back to The Final Round, Seana Smith. We got some momentum here in the last hour of trading, with the Dow closing up just around 165 points. The leaders in the Dow today-- Dow Inc, Exxon and McDonald's.
The laggard in the Dow today was the winner yesterday, and the big name that we've been talking about this week, and that's Microsoft, with shares there closing off just around 2%. The Dow closing in the green for its third trading day in a row. The NASDAQ, regaining some of its losses here to close the day in the green-- up just around 3/10 of a percent, and the S&P closing up just around 3/10 of a percent as well.
The sector action today-- energy materials and real estate leading the way. The laggards, on the flip side, financials and health care. They're both closing in the red. I want to mention the action that we saw in gold today. Gold closing above 2000 for the first time. We talked to Bill Brooke last hour about the rally that we've seen in gold that really started about a year and a half ago.
But again, today, closing about 2,000 in dollars for the first time ever. It's a safety play that's still being favored. And some in the street think that it still has a way to go-- Bank of America, just one of the names out there, saying that they expect gold to hit 3,000 within the next 18 months.
Well, we have a very, very busy next hour for you. We're waiting for earnings results from Disney, from Beyond Meat, and from Activision Blizzard. So I want to bring in my co-host for the next hour, Myles Upland. We also have full team coverage today-- we are joined by Ines Ferre, Dan Howley, Jared Blikre, Brian Sozzi and Dan Roberts to break down all of this breaking news for you in the next hour.
And Myles , I mean, if you take a look at the action today, interesting this leg higher that we got in the final hour of trading, but volume continues to be light.
MYLES UDLAND: Yeah. I mean, it is August, right? I think, while we do have a pandemic on, people are trying to take some vacation, trying to do some other things here for the month of August. And as we've mentioned a few times, typically a seasonally weaker month for the market. So a couple of constructive days to kick things off.
And I think what continues to surprise me-- although, at this point, no one should be surprised by anything, so joke's on me there-- is just the way the market is looking at these seemingly non-constructive talks with respect to the CARES Act and additional stimulus, and essentially betting that something will get done. I think that's a fair bet. I think it is more likely than not something gets done.
But the way the market has, almost at no point, priced in a there-is-no-deal type scenario, it's just been a little bit surprising. And I think it does speak to a relentless optimism that, at least, the investor class has had towards a vaccine, towards the future of the economy, towards Congress doing the right thing, or, at least, directionally, the right thing.
And I think those themes are just things that investors have to keep in mind. That the overall tendency of the market, the overall outlook for market participants, has, in general, been a lot more positive than 4 and 1/2 million cases and 150,000 deaths, I think, otherwise suggest. And until further notice, those are the basic rules, I think-- the basic roadmap here that markets have been and will continue to follow probably through the rest of this year. Certainly, at least up until the election.
