S&P 500 index gains on mixed day for Wall Street
NEW YORK — Stock indexes ended mixed on Wall Street Wednesday, even as the market extended its winning streak to a third day and gains in technology companies pushed the Nasdaq to an all-time high.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, coming off the heels of a whiplash start to the year where its worst quarterly performance since 2008 gave way to its best quarter since 1998. Treasury yields and the price of oil rose. Stocks in Europe fell, while markets in Asia ended mixed.
Encouraging reports on the U.S. economy helped nudge the market higher. Investors continue to balance signs that the economy is improving after grinding nearly to a halt in the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic against worry that the number of new confirmed infections is surging in parts of the U.S. and other hotspots around the globe.
“There’s this tug-of-war going on between an improving economy and a reminder that we don’t have a vaccine yet, and we’re getting a second wave of infections in some parts of the country,” said Phil Orlando,
chief equity strategist at Federated Hermes. “The question is which one of these two competing narratives are going to win?”
The S&P 500 gained 15.57 points to 3,115.86. The Nasdaq composite, heavily weighted with technology companies, climbed 95.86 points, or 1%, to 10,154.63, a record high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 77.91 points, or 0.3%, to 25,734.97. The index drifted between a gain of 206 points and a loss of 99 points. Small company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 index dropped 14.05 points, or 1%, to 1,427.31.
Markets around the world roared back last quarter on hopes economies are beginning to pull out of the severe, sudden recession that struck after governments shut down businesses in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus. But a recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases, particularly in the U.S. South and West, has raised doubts about whether those hopes were premature or overdone.
In the U.S., a report said the manufacturing sector returned to growth last month, much better than the slight contraction expected.