US STOCKS-Wall Street closes higher as upbeat economic data allays slowdown fears

Nu Ride

27/06/2023 21:56

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        * 
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      Indexes up: Nasdaq 1.65%, S&P 1.15%, Dow 0.63%
    

  
 (Updates with final closing prices, adds commentary)
    By Sinéad Carew, Sruthi Shankar and Johann M  Cherian
       June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes rebounded on
Tuesday from a recent losing streak as upbeat economic data
soothed investor worries about an imminent recession triggered
by the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes.
    Separate reports showed new orders for key U.S.-manufactured
capital goods unexpectedly rose in May, and sales of new
single-family homes surged in the same month, while U.S.
consumer confidence increased to a near 1-1/2 year high in June.
    The data gave investors a reason to buy back into stocks
after a "pretty vicious correction" in the last several
sessions, said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at
Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
    "What we have today is this series of economic releases that
on balance fit this setting of an economy that continues to be
in an expansionary mode, without at the same time suggesting
there's any condition that's running too hot."  
    And just days before the second quarter ends, Luschini said
it was notable that some the top sector performers on Tuesday,
such as consumer discretionary  .SPLRCD  and technology
 .SPLRCT , were also the market's biggest gainers on a
year-to-date basis.
    While the economic data was encouraging, Rhys Williams,
chief strategist at Spouting Rock Asset Management, said the
market was likely helped by so-called window-dressing, when fund
managers add outperforming assets to their portfolio for their
quarter-end statements.
    "You'd a bad week in the stock market last week and a bad
day on Monday. It's just a bit of recovery," said Williams.
"There could be some quarter-end window-dressing too as we get
close to the end of the quarter."
    The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  snapped a
six-day losing streak on Tuesday while the tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite  .IXIC  was eyeing its best first-half performance in
40 years and the S&P 500  .SPX  advanced after falling in five
of the last six sessions. 
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 212.03 points,
or 0.63%, to 33,926.74; the S&P 500  .SPX  gained 49.59 points,
or 1.15%, at 4,378.41; and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  added
219.90 points, or 1.65%, at 13,555.67.
    The signs of U.S. economic resilience also boosted the Dow
Transports index  .DJT , which closed up 2.7% and the small-cap
Russell 2000 index  .RUT , which advanced 1.5%.   
    And the PHLX Housing index  .HGX  closed up 2.99% after
hitting an all-time high on Tuesday.
    Traders were pricing in a roughly 77% chance the Fed will
raise interest rates by 25 bps to the 5.25%-5.50% range in its
July meeting, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool, up from
74.4% a day earlier.
    More economic data is expected this week, including a key
inflation measure, as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech
at the European Central Bank Forum in Sintra, Portugal, which
could provide cues on the path of interest rates.
    Powell's hawkish comments last week stalled a U.S. stock
rally that had pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to an over one-year
high and the Dow to a six-month peak.
    Despite recent market weakness, a growth stocks rally, an
upbeat earnings season and hopes of the Fed ending its monetary
tightening soon have set the main indexes on course for
quarterly gains.
    Market heavyweights Microsoft Corp  MSFT.O  and Apple Inc
 AAPL.O  were among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 during the
session, along with Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O , Tesla Inc  TSLA.O 
and Nvidia Corp  NVDA.O .
    Meta Platforms Inc  META.O  shares rose 3% after Citigroup
raised its price target on the stock.
    Snowflake  SNOW.N  climbed 4.2% after the cloud data
analytics company announced a partnership with Nvidia to allow
customers to build artificial intelligence models using their
own data.
    Walgreens Boots Alliance  WBA.O  shares sank 9.3% as the
pharmacy chain cut its annual profit forecast on lower demand
for COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
    Other drugstore chains, including CVS Health Corp  CVS.N 
and Rite Aid Corp  RAD.N , also fell.
    Lordstown Motors Corp  RIDE.O  shares slumped 17.2% after
the U.S. electric truck manufacturer filed for bankruptcy
protection and put itself up for sale.
    Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a
2.55-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.54-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
    The S&P 500 posted 46 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 150 new lows.
    On U.S. exchanges 10.16 billion shares changed hands
compared with the 11.63 billion average for the last 20
sessions.


 (Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Sruthi Shankar, Johann
M Cherian in Bengaluru and Terence Gabriel in New York; Editing
by Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang)
 ((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +1 332-219-1897))