Stock Market Today: Wall Street Ticks Higher as Big Tech Recovers Following Worst Week in Months

Economy

By Associated Press

Published 5 hours ago on

July 22, 2024

Wall Street edges higher as Big Tech stocks recover some losses from worst week since April. (AP File)

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NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are ticking higher Monday and clawing back some of the losses from their worst week since April.

The S&P 500 was up 0.5% in midday trading and on track to break a three-day losing streak. It would be the first gain for the index since it set an all-time high on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 21 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

Big Tech Stocks Regain Ground, Supporting the Market

Nvidia rose 2.4%, and other Big Tech stocks likewise regained some of their sharp drops from the week before to support the market. They had sputtered amid criticism they’d grown too expensive after rocketing so high and being the main reasons for Wall Street’s run to records. Two of them, Alphabet and Tesla, will report on Tuesday how much profit they earned during the spring in a big test. They each rose at least 1.7%.

Treasury yields were holding relatively steady in the bond market after President Joe Biden said he won’t run for re-election. The move could cause the unwind of some of the market’s “Trump trade,” which took off after Biden’s weak performance in a debate last month raised expectations for a win by former President Donald Trump.

Bank stocks had climbed on forecasts for lighter regulations following a Republican sweep, for example, and longer-term Treasury yields climbed more than short-term ones on expectations for policies that could push up the U.S. government’s already high debt.

But Biden’s stepping aside over the weekend wasn’t that big a surprise for the market. “It was a matter of when, not if,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“This could lower the odds of Trump winning, but the Democrats have to rally around a candidate first.”

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding steady at 4.24%, where it was late Friday. Shorter-term yields were also holding firm. The two-year yield remained at 4.52%, where it was late Friday.

Other corners of the market that could have swung sharply on uncertainty about the election were also mostly quiet. The U.S. dollar’s value was relatively steady against its biggest rivals.

Corporate Profits and Economic Growth in Focus

In the meantime, reports on corporate profits and the U.S. economy’s growth could continue to grab the market’s spotlight. Analysts are expecting companies in the S&P 500 to deliver the strongest profit growth for the latest quarter since the end of 2021, according to FactSet.

Truist Financial rose 2.9% after the bank reported net interest income, a key underlying measure of overall profit, that analysts called stronger than expected.

Verizon Communications tumbled 6.4% after reporting profit for the latest quarter that matched analysts’ expectations but revenue that fell just short.

Besides Alphabet and Tesla, dozens of other big U.S. companies will also report their latest quarterly results this upcoming week, including Coca-Cola, Ford and American Airlines.

Airlines last week struggled with massive disruptions from a global technology outage, which appeared to have been resolved over the weekend though delays at airports continued Monday.

A faulty software update caused havoc worldwide and led to the grounding by almost all airlines of a number of flights. The vast majority of cancellations early Monday were Delta Air Lines flights. Delta’s stock lost 1.9%.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack and that it had deployed a fix. The company said the problem lay in a faulty update sent to computers running Microsoft Windows.

CrowdStrike’s stock was down another 12.5% Monday after taking an 11.1% hit on Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.3%, but stocks fell 0.6% in Shanghai after China’s central bank unexpectedly lowered a benchmark interest rate for loans. The move came after the government recently reported the world’s second-largest economy expanded at a slower-than-forecast pace in the second quarter.