Stock futures opened slightly higher on Wednesday, with investors taking a break after a record gain for the S&P 500 and Dow.
Previously, both the S&P 500 and the Dow set intraday and closing records, with the gain in the first led by the sectors of information technology, communication services and discretionary consumption. Bitcoin prices (BTC-USD) closed at $ 58,000, approaching the historic high established last month.
The Nasdaq ended up 2.5% up to recover some losses in recent weeks. The move to buy technology and growth stocks came along with a drop in Treasury yields, as concerns about the rapid rise in inflation and a short-term tightening of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy eased. The 10-year reference Treasury yield hovered below 1.55%, or almost 40 basis points above a month ago, but little has changed since the beginning of March. The rapid rate hike in early March prompted a rapid sale of many technology stocks, with expectations of higher rates and borrowing costs weighing on the valuations of growing companies.
“The reason why I think they are buying [tech stocks] this week is because you saw some accommodation in the interest rate market. That was one of the big sources of volatility that we’ve seen in the past few weeks, “Megan Horneman, Consultant at Verdence Capital, told Yahoo Finance on Thursday.” So not only did we have decent bond auctions this week that helped to settle the markets down a bit, but then the ECB [European Central Bank] came out this morning and said they would be more aggressive in buying bonds. So, all of this helped to contain the volatility of fixed income, which gave us another technology bid here in the market. “
Thursday’s increased risk also came after President Joe Biden signed a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, which will quickly provide another massive infusion of stimulus directly to Americans and small businesses. Most Americans are about to receive $ 1,400 stimulus checks, which may arrive this weekend, the White House said.
Meanwhile, increasingly positive news on the front of the COVID-19 vaccine has also surfaced. Novavax (NVAX) shares rose more than 20% at the end of Thursday’s trading session, after a final analysis of the UK pharmacist’s COVID-19 vaccine trial showed that inoculation was 96.4% effective against diseases mild, moderate and severe caused by the original coronavirus. The analyzes also showed that the vaccine was 86.3% effective against the coronavirus variant that circulates in the United Kingdom and 55.4% effective against the variant that circulates in South Africa.
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6: 01 pm ET Thuday: stock futures move up
Here are the main movements in the markets as of 6:01 pm ET:
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S&P 500 Futures (ES = F): 3,938.5, an increase of 1.75 points or 0.04%
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Dow Futures (YM = F): 32,507.00, up to 28 points or 0.09%
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Nasdaq Futures (NQ = F): 13,058.5, an increase of 10.25 points or 0.08%
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Emily McCormick is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck
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