Most stocks higher as earnings kick off
NEW YORK — Most U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, but indexes petered out to a mixed finish as momentum weakened following an encouraging start to what’s expected to be a thunderous earnings reporting season.
The S&P 500 fell 16.93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,124.66, a day after returning to an all-time high. It flipped between small gains and losses several times through the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.62 points, or 0.2 percent, to 33,730.89 after rising its record set last week earlier in the day. The Nasdaq composite lost an early gain to drop 138.26, or 1 percent, to 13,857.84.
The market was held back by drops for several heavyweight tech stocks, including Apple and Amazon, but the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 rose. Smaller companies also rallied amid growing optimism as COVID-19 vaccines roll out and businesses reopen. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks climbed 18.79, or 0.8 percent, to 2,247.72.
Shares of Coinbase Global, an exchange for bitcoin and other digital currencies, surged in their market debut, perhaps a defining moment for cryptocurrencies as they get embraced more by the mainstream.
Energy stocks were also among the market’s strongest on expectations that a resurgent economy will burn more petroleum products.
That helped benchmark U.S. crude oil rise $2.97 to settle at $63.15 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed $2.91 to $66.58 a barrel. Within the S&P 500, Diamondback Energy was one of the top-performing stocks with a gain of 6 percent. Occidental Petroleum rose 5.2 perabove cent.
Much of the market’s focus in coming weeks will be on earnings season, as companies line up to report how much profit they made during the first three months of 2021. Expectations are very high, and this may be the best quarter of earnings growth for S&P 500 companies in more than a decade.
Big banks are traditionally among the first companies to report, and Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all unveiled earnings for the first quarter that blew past analysts’ forecasts.
The better-than-expected results didn’t give all the bank stocks a uniform pop, though. Goldman Sachs rallied 2.3 percent, but JPMorgan Chase fell 1.9 percent. Wells Fargo jumped 5.5 percent, but only after swerving from an early-morning loss to a gain.
Stocks in recent earnings seasons have been failing to get as big a bounce as they usually do after reporting better-than-expected results. Analysts say it’s likely a result of how much stock prices have already rallied on expectations for the strong growth. The S&P 500 has soared roughly 85 percent since hitting a bottom in March 2020, even as the pandemic crunched profits for companies.