Tech Stocks Waver Ahead Of Fed Meeting, Energy Rallies, Bitcoin Plummets Below $65,000: What's Driving Markets Tuesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | March 19, 2024 01:15pm

Wall Street showed a timid performance in Tuesday’s session, with investors remaining on the sidelines awaiting further indications on the future of interest rates ahead of Wednesday’s Fed meeting.

At midday trading in New York, the S&P 500 recorded gains of 0.4%, while tech stocks saw a slight decline of 0.1%. In contrast, blue-chip stocks and small caps demonstrated resilience, with gains of 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively.

Treasury yields remained largely unchanged, while the U.S. dollar index (DXY) surged 0.3%, driven by the dollar’s strength against the Japanese yen, despite the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise interest rates for the first time in 17 years.

The Bank of Japan’s move, which involved a 10-basis-point increase, was perceived as less hawkish than anticipated by market participants, as the central bank failed to signal any additional hints of rate hikes.

Oil prices climbed 0.5% to $82.5 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate light crude, with strong momentum driving energy stocks higher, poised to reach their highest levels since late September 2023.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) grabbed headlines as it experienced a significant drop of over 5%, equivalent to a $10,000 daily drawdown, amidst escalating selling pressures across crypto platforms.

Tuesday’s Performance In Major U.S. Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-Day %chg
Dow Jones	39,086.19	0.8%
Russell 2000	2,048.07	0.4%
S&P 500	5,168.03	0.4%
Nasdaq 100	17,970.32	-0.1 %

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was 0.3% higher to $514.23, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.7% to $390.33, while the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) eased 0.1% to $438.11, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

Sector-wise, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) was the top performer for the day, up 1%, while the Communication Services Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) was the laggard, down 0.4%.

Tuesday’s Stock Movers

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) fell over 5% after Goldman Sachs analysts revealed the latest Nvidia chip could generate headwinds to competitors like AMD.
• Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME) rallied over 6% despite reporting weaker-than-expected earnings last quarter. Still, the company reported a 20% annual increase in paid users in China and a 41% revenue increase on its online music service.
• Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE:JWN) rose over 10% Tuesday, following a report suggesting the company was looking to go private.
• International Paper Co (NYSE:IP) rose 10% after it named Andrew Silvernail as its new CEO.
• Avis Budget Group Inc. (NYSE:CAR) rose 5% after BofA Securities initiated coverage with Buy rating, setting a price target of $170.

Read Now: Warren Buffett’s Prediction Comes True: Japanese Banks To Profit From BoJ’s Positive Rates

Image made via artificial intelligence on MidJourney

Posted In: $BTC AMD CAR DIA IP JWN QQQ SPY TME XLC XLE XLRE