Wednesday’s Stock Market Close: US Equities Rise Ahead Of Key Earnings from Microsoft, Tesla

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as Republicans offered to extend COVID-19-related unemployment benefits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 165.44 points to 27,005.84, while the S&P 500 rose 18.72 points to 3,276.02 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 25.76 points to 10,706.13.

Wednesday’s volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 3.67 billion shares with 1,736 issues advancing, 113 setting new highs, and 1,254 declining, with five stocks setting a new low .

Active movers were led by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) , FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) and NIO Inc. (NIO).

Republicans may extend current unemployment benefits at $400 per week – lower than the current $600 figure -- through December.

The U.S. State Department ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston in order to protect American intellectual property and private information of its citizens. The foreign ministry in Beijing condemned the move and threatened countermeasures.

Traders are looking forward to earnings releases from Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) after the closing bell.

Sales of existing homes surged almost 21% in June compared with May -- the biggest monthly gain ever recorded -- said the National Association of Realtors.“The housing market is hot, red hot, based on the data and the anecdotal prevalence of multiple offers,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors “The urban area is less hot. We are clearly seeing trends for smaller towns or suburbs.”]

The U.S. said will pay Pfizer (PFE) and German biotech company BioNTech (BNTX) $1.95 billion to produce and deliver 100 million doses of their jointly developed Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. if it proves to be safe and effective in humans.

“Typically, it takes roughly a decade for a new vaccine to go through the various stages of development and testing,” said Ed Yardeni, CIO of Yardeni Research. “However, the urgency of the pandemic ... has resulted in a mobilization of global medical resources rarely seen before in human history. Billions of dollars, provided by both the public and the private sectors, are funding the global campaign to develop tests, vaccines, and cures for the virus. But the next phase will be critical to demonstrate that the potential vaccines can protect against infections,” he said.

Dan Deming, managing director at KKM Financial, warned about some “apprehension” in the market over civil unrest across the U.S. “Those are legitimate concerns, but they have not had much of an impact at this point because the overwhelming focus is on the stimulus that came from the [European Union] and the U.S. package that’s currently being worked on,” he said.

Overnight in Asia markets finished mixed, as China’s Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.37%; Japan’s Nikkei-225 fell 0.58%; and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Exchange plunged 2.25%.

In Europe markets finished lower, as Britain’s FTSE-100 fell 1%, while France’s CAC-40 tumbled 1.32% and Germany’s DAX dropped 0.51%.

Crude oil futures fell 0.29% at $41.84 per barrel, Brent crude slipped 0.07% at $44.26. Gold futures rose 1.34%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 1.98% to 0.595% while yield on the 30-year Treasury dropped 1.83% to 1.289%.