Wall Street gains ahead of Biden's spending plan outline
(Reuters) – Technology shares lifted major U.S. stock indexes on Wednesday as investors awaited details on President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure plan, while Wall Street eyed its fourth straight quarterly gain.
The industrial sector hit a record high ahead of an outline of the $3 trillion-$4 trillion package that will target traditional projects like roads and bridges alongside investments in the electric vehicle market.
The size and scale of the proposal, as well as the question of how it would be paid for is likely to set the stage for the next partisan clash in Congress.
Unprecedented stimulus and a swift vaccine rollout in the United States helped the S&P 500 and the Dow hit record closing highs last week.
The Nasdaq jumped more than 1% on Wednesday, but the index is about 7% off its all-time peak as high-flying tech names have been hit by a surge in U.S. 10-year bond yields.
“The infrastructure plan and the climbing yields just mean that rotation from growth to value is going to continue … over next several weeks,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
After leading Wall Street’s rally from the coronavirus lows of last year, the technology-heavy Nasdaq’s 1.2% gain has lagged the S&P 500 and the Dow this quarter.
At 09:57 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 29.72 points, or 0.09%, to 33,096.68, and the S&P 500 gained 16.44 points, or 0.42%, to 3,974.99.
Apple Inc rose 1.6% after brokerage UBS upgraded the stock to “buy” on stable long-term demand for iPhones with better authorized service providers.
Technology sector added about 1%, while financials and energy stocks dropped in a reversal of this quarter’s trend.
Latest numbers showed U.S. private employers boosted hiring in March as more Americans got vaccinated against COVID-19. The report is in line with recent signs of improvement in the labor market and comes ahead of the more comprehensive monthly jobs report on Friday.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc advanced 5% after raising its 2021 profit forecast on higher sales at its U.S. retail pharmacy stores.
Chewy Inc jumped 10% as brokerages raised their price targets on the stock after the online pet product retailer posted fourth-quarter profit from year-ago loss.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.7-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and no new low while the Nasdaq recorded 41 new highs and 20 new lows.
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