Wall Street Slumps For Third Straight Day As Investor Sentiment Fades, Dollar Strength Resumes, Boeing Disappoints: What's Driving Markets Wednesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | October 23, 2024 02:07pm

Wall Street is on track for its third consecutive day of losses as investors grow cautious about risky assets, awaiting more clarity on U.S. fiscal and monetary policies and scrutinizing the latest batch of corporate earnings.

Both equities and commodities took a hit on Wednesday, while the U.S. dollar gained strength, attracting investor flows as traders moved to safer cash positions.

The U.S. dollar index, as tracked by the the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF (NYSE:UUP), rose 0.5%, reaching levels last seen in late July.

At midday in New York, the S&P 500 was down 0.7%, attempting to hold support around the 5,800-point level. The Dow Jones also dropped 0.7%, and tech stocks, along with small caps, fared worse, sliding by 0.9%.

On the data front, mortgage applications declined for the fourth straight week, reflecting continued pressure from elevated borrowing costs.

Existing home sales fell by 1% in September to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.84 million, the lowest level since October 2010. This follows an upwardly revised 3.88 million in August and missed forecasts of 3.9 million.

Despite weak housing data, real estate stocks showed surprising resilience. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (NYSE:VNQ) and the SPDR Homebuilders ETF (NYSE:XHB) moved higher after two straight sessions of losses.

Gold prices, as tracked by the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD), fell more than 1%, pulling mining stocks down with it. Silver plummeted over 3%, retreating from 12-year highs reached on Tuesday.

Oil prices slipped by 1%, while Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) tumbled 2%.

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

Major Indices	Price	1-day %chg
S&P 500	5,815.02	-0.7%
Dow Jones	42,625.59	-0.7%
Russell 2000	2,213.10	-0.9%
Nasdaq 100	20,196.24	-0.9%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) fell 0.6% to $579.72.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) inched 0.7% lower to $426.41.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 1% to $491.16.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) fell 0.7% $219.80.
• The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLRE) outperformed, up 0.6%. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) lagged, down 1%.

Wednesday’s Stock Movers

• Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) fell 2.4% after reporting a worse-than-expected losses last quarter.

Other stocks reacting to earnings included:

• Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:TXN), up 3.5%.
• Baker Hughes Co. (NASDAQ:BKR), up 3.9%.
• Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX), down over 7%.
• Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE:PKG), up over 6%.
• Manhattan Associates Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH), down over 7%.
• East West Bancorp. Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC), up over 7%.
• Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH), down over 13%.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO), down 2.2%.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO), down 2.9%.
• NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE:NEE), down 0.1%.
• AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), up 3.8%.
• Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX), down 3.7%.
• CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), down 0.9%.
• GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV), down 1.6%.
• Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT), down 2.6%.
• Vertiv Holdings LLC (NYSE:VRT), down 2.8%.
• Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. (NASDAQ:ODFL), down 4.8%.

Large-cap companies reporting earnings after the close include Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW), Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX), Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM), United Rentals Inc. (NYSE:URI), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE:RJF).

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