Wednesday’s Stock Market Open: US Equities Jump On Strong Retailer Numbers

Update: 12:05 p.m. EDT:

U.S. stocks traded robustly higher as of noon Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 407.26 points to 24,614.12, while the S&P 500 rose 54.77 points to 2,977.71 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 201.48 points to 9,386.59.

In Europe markets closed higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 rose 1.08%, while France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.87% and Germany’s DAX gained 1.34%.

Original story:

U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday as some large retailers delivered strong first quarter results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 329.03 points to 24,535.89, while the S&P 500 rose 39.16 points to 2,962.10 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 132.86 points to 9,317.96.

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s (LOW) posted an 11.2% jump in same-store sales for the first quarter of 11.2%.

Target (TGT) said its same-store sales climbed 10.8% in the first quarter due to soaring online sales.

The Federal Reserve is set to release the minutes from its last meeting at 2 p.m. ET.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said mortgage applications to buy a home rose by 6% last week from the prior week.

“Applications for home purchases continue to recover from April’s sizable drop and have now increased for five consecutive weeks,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist. “Government purchase applications, which include FHA, VA, and USDA loans, are now 5% higher than a year ago, which is an encouraging turnaround after the weakness seen over the past two months.”

Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, said of Tuesday’s mixed stock performance: The overall stock market gave back only a small part of its monster gain from [Monday] which really was encouraging being bolstered most of the day by the prospect of a period ahead of ‘better news.’ With [business] re-openings now the vogue [across] the country, it seems almost assured that fundamental economic and earnings reports are headed for a period of improvement. Coupled with a virus headed into its weak summer season and vaccine trials in full go, perhaps the stock market could be supported by something other than liquidity injections and fiscal juice.”

More than 4.9 million covid-19 cases have been confirmed around the world, with more than 1.5 million in the U.S. alone.

Overnight in Asia, markets finished mixed. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.51%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up 0.05%; while Japan’s Nikkei-225 rose 0.79%.

In Europe markets traded higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 rose 0.48%, while France’s CAC-40 edged up 0.03% and Germany’s DAX gained 0.52%.

Crude oil futures gained 2.47% at $32.75 per barrel, Brent crude rose 0.98% at $35.63. Gold futures rose 0.31%.

The euro rose 0.41% at $1.0969 while the pound sterling gained 0.2% at $1.2276.