Nasdaq Leads Market Rally as Job Openings Rebound and Tech Stocks Surge
U.S. markets climb on strong gains in tech and oil services; April job openings surprise to the upside; global indices show mixed results.
The Nasdaq advanced 156.34 points (0.8%) to 19,398.96, the S&P 500 climbed 34.43 points (0.6%) to 5,970.37 and the Dow rose 214.16 points (0.5%) to 42,519.64.
Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected increase by job openings in the U.S. in the month of April. It said the job openings climbed to 7.39 million in April from an upwardly revised 7.20 million in March. The unexpected rebound by job openings partly reflected increases in job openings in the arts, entertainment, and recreation and mining and logging sectors.
Oil service stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day as the price of crude oil extended Monday's surge amid ongoing supply concerns, resulting in a 4.2% spike by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. Semiconductor stocks was substantially strong , as reflected by the 2.7% jump by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Computer hardware and networking stocks saw considerable strength, contributing to the advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq while housing and banking stocks also moved notably higher.
Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged down by 0.1%, while China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.4%. The major European markets all moved to upside. The German DAX Index advanced by 0.7%, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2%.
In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground after an early advance, closing roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.46% after hitting a low of 4.40%.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Elon Musk wants to retrain XAI's chatbot Grok to clear 'ChatGPT's woke' and .... Garbage
Representative Image Elon Musk the founder of xAI has said that he will retrain his artificial intelligence chatbot and ChatGPT rival Grok . Musk took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and shared a post stating that he will be removing what he terms "ChatGPT's woke" biases and other "garbage" from the foundational knowledge of Grok. Elon Musk to retrain chatbot Grok In a series of posts shared on X, Elon Musk announced that the upcoming version of Grok likely to be called as Grok 4 will trained on the revised information curated by Grok 3.5's advanced reasoning capabilities. 'We will use Grok 3.5… to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors,' Musk wrote, adding that current AI models are trained on 'far too much garbage'. This move from Elon Musk comes after his repeated criticism of rival AI model — ChatGPT. Musk has criticised ChatGPT for what he perceives as a "woke mind virus" or ideological slant in their responses. Musk has also asked the users to submit their 'divisive facts' which will be used in the retraining of Grok. 'Please reply to this post with divisive facts for @Grok training. By this I mean things that are politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true', wrote Musk. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Elon Musk's xAI issues clarification on Grok's responses on white genocide Recently, some X users reported that Grok repeatedly generated responses referring to the theory of "white genocide" in South Africa. Users who tagged @grok in posts about sports, entertainment, and general topics received replies discussing racial violence in South Africa, including references to the anti-apartheid chant 'Kill the Boer'. After this, Elon Musk's xAI issued a clarification for this incident. In a statement shared on X, xAI said that the modification in Grok violated the internal policies and core values, leading the chatbot to repeatedly reference politically sensitive topics. The company stated that the change was detected and reversed promptly, though it did not disclose who was responsible for the alteration.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
Investors brace for oil price spike, rush to havens after US bombs Iran nuclear sites
Investors warned that U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites could jolt global markets when they reopen, with oil prices likely to surge and a rush toward safe-haven assets such as the dollar expected. The attack, announced by President Donald Trump, deepens U.S. involvement in the Middle East conflict, raising concerns about inflation and economic uncertainty. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Oil prices, inflation Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Dollar woes A U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday could lead to a knee-jerk reaction in global markets when they reopen, sending oil prices higher and triggering a rush to safety, investors said, as they assessed how the latest escalation of tensions would ripple through the global attack, which was announced by President Donald Trump on social media site Truth Social, deepens U.S. involvement in the Middle East conflict. That was the question going into the weekend, when investors were mulling a host of different market scenarios. In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, they expected the U.S. involvement was likely to cause a selloff in equities and a possible bid for the dollar and other safe-haven assets when trading begins, but also said much uncertainty about the course of the conflict Trump called the attack "successful", few details were known. He was expected to address the nation later on Saturday."I think the markets are going to be initially alarmed, and I think oil will open higher," said Mark Spindel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital."We don't have any damage assessment and that will take some time. Even though he has described this as 'done', we're engaged. What comes next?" Spindel said. "I think the uncertainty is going to blanket the markets, as now Americans everywhere are going to be exposed. It's going to raise uncertainty and volatility, particularly in oil," he however, said there was time to digest the news before markets open and said he was making arrangements to talk to other market participants.A key concern for markets would center around the potential impact of the developments in the Middle East on oil prices and thus on inflation. A rise in inflation could dampen consumer confidence and lessen the chance of near-term interest rate cuts."This adds a complicated new layer of risk that we'll have to consider and pay attention to," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Capital. "This is definitely going to have an impact on energy prices and potentially on inflation as well."While global benchmark Brent crude futures have risen as much as 18% since June 10, hitting a near five-month high of $79.04 on Thursday, the S&P 500 has been little changed, following an initial drop when Israel launched its attacks on Iran on June the U.S. attack on Saturday, analysts at Oxford Economics modeled three scenarios, including a de-escalation of the conflict, a complete shutdown in Iranian oil production and a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, "each with increasingly large impacts on global oil prices."In the most severe case, global oil prices jump to around $130 per barrel, driving U.S. inflation near 6% by the end of this year, Oxford said in the note. "Although the price shock inevitably dampens consumer spending because of the hit to real incomes, the scale of the rise in inflation and concerns about the potential for second-round inflation effects likely ruin any chance of rate cuts in the U.S. this year," Oxford said in the note, which was published before the U.S. strikes. In comments after the announcement on Saturday, Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, agreed oil prices would likely spike on the initial news. But Cox said he expected prices to likely level in a few days as the attacks could lead Iran to seek a peace deal with Israel and the United States."With this demonstration of force and total annihilation of its nuclear capabilities, they've lost all of their leverage and will likely hit the escape button to a peace deal," Cox said. Economists warn that a dramatic rise in oil prices could damage a global economy already strained by Trump's any pullback in equities might be fleeting, history suggests. During past prominent instances of Middle East tensions coming to a boil, including the 2003 Iraq invasion and the 2019 attacks on Saudi oil facilities, stocks initially languished but soon recovered to trade higher in the months average, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% in the three weeks following the start of conflict, but was 2.3% higher on average two months following the conflict, according to data from Wedbush Securities and CapIQ escalation in the conflict could have mixed implications for the U.S. dollar, which has tumbled this year amid worries over diminished U.S. the event of U.S. direct engagement in the Iran-Israel war, the dollar could initially benefit from a safety bid, analysts said."Do we see a flight to safety? That would signal yields going lower and the dollar getting stronger," said Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at IBKR in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It's hard to imagine stocks not reacting negatively and the question is how much. It will depend on Iranian reaction and whether oil prices spike."
Mint
a day ago
- Mint
Everyone thinks the S&P 500 is too expensive. Maybe it's too cheap.
People are growing afraid of buying into the S&P 500, which appears expensive right now. A deeper look at the index shows that it could be undervalued. The fears are understandable. The index has soared, regardless of considerable economic and policy risks. The S&P 500, now a bit below 6000, is well above its level just before April 2, when President Donald Trump announced 10% tariffs on all imports, plus higher levies on many of the U.S.'s most important trading partners. Tariffs are still a danger, even though the president has suspended most of the country-specific levies until July 9. Investors are monitoring whether potential price increases from companies will bring more inflation, higher interest rates, and slowing economic growth. The Trump administration's tax and spending bill, as approved by the House of Representatives, would mean an even larger federal budget deficit, which could both add to inflation and send bond yields higher. Those concerns, for now, are on the back burner. Inflation has remained close enough to the Federal Reserve's 2% target for the market to bet that the central bank may cut interest rates this year, fueling expectations that the economy and corporate earnings will continue to grow. As a result, traders and investors have bid the S&P 500 upwards, leaving naysayers in the dust. Now, the index appears expensive at about 22 times the aggregate per-share earnings that analysts forecast for the coming 12 months, according to FactSet. That is close to the highest multiple in the past 3½ years, a period when rates have risen and growth has slowed a bit. As a result, the view that the market is vulnerable to sliding in response to any economic disappointment has become more widespread. But the most fundamental analysis of companies indicates that as long as the economy avoids major trouble, the S&P 500 is mildly undervalued. Dennis DeBusschere, veteran strategist and founder of 22V Research, did the work. He assumes S&P 500 earnings will grow at 8% annually for the next five years, a standard forecast period for valuing stocks. That call looks reasonable, or even conservative, because it is three percentage points below the consensus call among analysts tracked by FactSet. That type of growth is nothing investors can't imagine. The economy is still expanding, and profits for Big Tech, which account for a double-digit percentage of earnings for the index, are expected to grow just over 15% annually for the next two years, partly as a result of increasing demand for artificial intelligence. For the long term, beyond the next five years, he assumes a constant growth rate of 4%, which means earnings would increase slightly faster than growth in gross domestic product, at 2.8% in 2024. That too is reasonable, given Big Tech's presence in the index. The cash companies return to shareholders via dividends and stock repurchases should grow at roughly the same pace, assuming companies maintain the percentage of their earnings they pay out to stockholders. DeBusschere discounts the current value of those future cash flows by about 8%—four percentage points more than the roughly 4% yield he expects on safe 10-year Treasury debt—arriving at a value of 6170 for the S&P 500. If it traded at that level now, it would be valued at 23 times the next 12 months' earnings. At a glance, that looks too expensive, but it makes sense. Maybe the market really is worth that much. Big Tech's AI adventure is just beginning, and if the economy avoids recession, earnings will grow at companies in other sectors, too. That is a big 'if," and the pessimists are afraid that earnings will disappoint. But if they don't, the S&P 500 isn't actually that expensive. It might even be underpriced. Write to Jacob Sonenshine at
