Stock Market News For Aug 9, 2019
Markets closed higher on Thursday as investors rejoiced better-than-expected trade data from China and the Asian country’s efforts to arrest its currency’s plunge against the U.S. dollar. The three major benchmarks ended in the green and posted their best close in over two months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.4%, to close at 26,378.19. The S&P 500 increased 1.9% to close at 2,938.72. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 8,039.16, gaining 2.2%. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 6% to close at 18.33. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 4.32-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 3.52-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow amassed 371.1 points to close in the green. Shares of Apple AAPL lost 2.2% and supported gains for the 30-stock index. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The S&P 500 rose 54.1 points to end in positive territory. All of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended in the green, with technology stocks leading the advancers. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) increased 2.5% on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq gained 176.3 points to also close in the green. Shares of Facebook FB jumped 2.7% and supported gains for the Nasdaq. Further, Thursday’s gains helped the indexes turn positive for the week. Also, the three major indexes exhibited their best performance since Jun 4.
China Fixes Yuan, Markets Rejoice
After a prolonged trade tiff, the tension between the United States and China seems to be developing into a currency war. However, China fixed its currency on Thursday after pegging its onshore reference rate at 7.0039 per US dollar. Notably, this is yuan’s weakest level against the dollar since Apr 21, 2008.
However, market watchers rejoiced the fact that the reference rate was higher than feared initially. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) fixes the currency on a daily basis, allowing only a 2-percentage-point change on the either end of the currency’s official midpoint.
Meanwhile, China’s exports rose 3.3% year-over-year in July, surpassing expectations of a 1% decline in the period.
Economic Data
On the economic data front, initial jobless claims fell to near post 2008 recession lows in the last week, falling to 209,000.
Stocks That Made Headlines
Azul Stock Gains on Q2 Earnings and Revenue Beat
Azul S.A.’s AZUL second-quarter 2019 earnings per ADS of which breezed past the Zacks Consensus Estimate. (Read More)
Uber Shares Decline on Wider-Than-Expected Q2 Loss
Uber Technologies, Inc. UBER released its second earnings report since going public in May. (Read More)
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