Investors waking up this morning can see that yesterday’s U.S. stock market exchange activity was not an April Fool’s joke.
After bouncing off of its mark around $2820 yesterday, the S&P 500 index has jumped up to around $2850 and then soared further up before rounding back down somewhat.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has handily broken its $26,000 mark as of the beginning of trading yesterday, and peaked around $26,200 before edging slightly back down as of press time this morning.
While analysts point out that technically, both indices have “edged slowly down” this morning, both of them are still robustly above Monday levels, not to mention last-Friday levels.
Back grounding this growth against steady market activity, Zacks writes today that some of this positive bullishness is based on “healthy manufacturing data” from both the United States and China, the two trade partners whose tiffs on tariffs led to some consternation last year.
Zacks also cites rallies in the technology and banking markets, using a fancy bit of jargon to denote a basket including Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet (Google) equities.
“The Nasdaq increased 99.9 points to close in positive territory. Gains for the tech-laden index were supported by a rally in FAANG stocks,” analysts wrote.
In addition to Chinese economic optimism, Harvey Katz at Value Line cites domestic benchmarks having an impact.
“The Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity had increased a bit more strongly in March than in February, but that even with this modest increase in the ISM Index, activity levels remained well below the strong pace of 2018 and the opening month of this year,” Katz writes today. “But just the small further uptick was what the Street wanted, especially with both new orders and prices both on the mend.”
Meanwhile others are reporting on why the market did not jump higher.
“Data out Tuesday on durable goods orders, however, could be helping temper optimism, after the Commerce Department said they fell 1.6% in the month of February, while a key gauge of business investment also fell by 0.1%, the third decline in four months,” write Chris Matthews and William Watts at MarketWatch, describing current activity as investors “taking a breather” from Monday’s big rally.
Keep an eye on the tickers – and watch those FANNG stocks to see how the market moves into the afternoon.
