Stock Market Today: Major Indexes Quietly Etch New Highs
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all squeaked out fresh highs in a fairly quiet Monday session. Much more explosive was the cryptocurrency space.
Monday was a slow-news day for the equity markets, but you might consider it the calm before the storm.
This week's earnings calendar is packed to the gills, with some 35% of S&P 500 companies releasing their quarterly financials – including mega-caps such as Apple (AAPL), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT).
For today, however, U.S. markets mostly seemed to ignore ripples from China, where the government cracked down both on Tencent Music (TME, -3.0%) and the country's for-profit education industry, sending stocks such as New Oriental Education (EDU, -33.8%) and TAL Education Group (TAL, -26.7%) plunging, which in turn weighed on Chinese and European indices.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Here at home, June new-home sales declined 6.6% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 676,000 homes, 120,000 below estimates. That appeared to hamper the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB, -0.9%).
"Although one should always be mindful of the imprecision of these estimates, due to the small sample size used in the survey, incoming data for the past few months show tentative signs that new housing demand has moderated after surging during the pandemic," says Barclays economist Jonathan Millar. "If sustained, this softening could have adverse implications for the residential construction outlook."
But the broader indexes remained aloft. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.2% to 35,144), S&P 500 (+0.2% to 4,422) and Nasdaq (up marginally to 14,840) all scratched out new all-time highs.
- Hasbro (HAS) kicked off a busy week of corporate earnings with a big win. The toymaker reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.05 per share on revenues of $1.32 billion – a marked improvement over its year-ago results of earnings of 2 cents per share on $1.16 billion in sales. The results easily topped analysts' estimates, as well. HAS stock finished the day up 12.2%.
- In M&A news, Aon (AON) and Willis Towers Watson (WLTW) agreed to end plans for a proposed $30 billion merger, which would have resulted in the largest global insurance firm. The deal was first announced in March 2020, but "reached an impasse with the U.S. Department of Justice," according to Aon CEO Greg Case. AON closed the session up 8.2%, while WLTW fell 9.0%.
- U.S. crude oil futures slipped 0.2% to end at $71.91 per barrel, snapping their four-day winning streak.
- Gold futures gave back 0.1% to settle at $1,799.20 an ounce.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) improved 2.2% to 17.58.
Cryptocurrency Parties Over the Weekend
However, one of the most exciting investment stories of late went down while equity markets were closed over the weekend.
A host of factors combined to spark a massive run in cryptocurrencies over the weekend, including Bitcoin, which shot 23.3% higher to $39,837 between Friday and Monday afternoon. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
Chief among them were the discovery of an Amazon.com (AMZN) job posting seeking a "digital currency and blockchain product lead," driving speculation that the online retailer is somehow involving itself with cryptocurrency. Also helping was nearly $1 billion in bearish bets against cryptocurrency that were liquidated (to cover a short bet, an investor must buy more of the underlying asset, driving up prices further – a phenomenon known as a "short squeeze").
For many, it's a fresh reason to get excited about digital currencies – and for others, it's a new chance to get acquainted. We can help.
To start, it always helps to know what risks you're taking with any investment: These are the five biggest threats to cryptocurrency dominance.
You should also know how you can invest. If you're constrained to your brokerage account, for instance, you can't buy Bitcoin directly – but you can buy several stocks that get you exposed to it and/or other digital currencies. And if you simply want to know the biggest players in the space, look no further. From Bitcoin to Ethereum to … yes, even Dogecoin … we break down eight of the largest, most influential cryptocurrencies the market has to offer.
Get Kiplinger Today newsletter — free
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.
Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism.
You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Close Mixed Amid War Angst, Nvidia Anxiety
Markets went into risk-off mode amid rising geopolitical tensions and high anxiety ahead of bellwether Nvidia's earnings report.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
What the Comcast Cable Spinoff Means for Investors
Comcast has announced plans to spin off select cable networks and digital assets into a separate publicly traded company. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Rally Despite Rising Geopolitical Tension
The main indexes were mixed on Tuesday but closed well off their lows after an early flight to safety.
By David Dittman Published
-
What's at Stake for Alphabet as DOJ Eyes Google's Chrome
Alphabet is higher Tuesday even as antitrust officials at the DOJ support forcing Google to sell its popular web browser. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Why Is Warren Buffett Selling So Much Stock?
Berkshire Hathaway is dumping equities, hoarding cash and making market participants nervous.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Slip Ahead of Election Day, Fed Decision
Post-earnings strength from Amazon and Intel helped cushion the blow of a disappointing October jobs report.
By David Dittman Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Climbs 288 Points After Amazon, Intel Earnings
Post-earnings strength from Amazon and Intel helped cushion the blow of a disappointing October jobs report.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Amazon Leads Dow Jones Stocks After Stellar Earnings Report
Amazon stock is higher Friday after the e-commerce and cloud giant reported strong Q3 earnings and Wall Street sees even more upside ahead. Here's why.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Apple Stock Slips After Earnings. Wall Street Isn't Worried
Apple stock is trading lower Friday despite the iPhone maker beating expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, but analysts are still bullish.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Struggle After Meta, Microsoft Earnings
All three major indexes closed lower on Thursday, making for a grim Halloween.
By David Dittman Published