Stock Market Today: Stocks Edge Up After Best Week of 2023

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published 7 November 2023

Market participants came to work Tuesday wondering if stocks could notch their longest winning streak in two years. Happily, upbeat reactions to some tech sector earnings, moderating Treasury yields and a steep drop in prices for crude oil helped equities catch a bid.

Indeed, stocks closed broadly higher, with the S&P 500 extending its win streak to seven days, or its longest such stretch since it rose for eight consecutive sessions in early November 2021. The Nasdaq Composite's eight straight winning sessions represent the index's longest stretch of gains since early November 2021, as well.

For the record, the broader S&P 500 added 0.3% to finish at 4,378 Tuesday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.9% to end at 13,639. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 0.2% to 34,152.

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Stocks have been rallying in part on increasing bets that the Federal Reserve is done hiking interest rates this cycle. As such, the rising Treasury yields that did so much to depress stocks last month have since moderated. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which hit a 16-year high above 5% in October, briefly fell below 4.5% at the end of last week, and remained under 4.6% on Tuesday.

Also boosting equities was a steep drop in oil prices, which helped to alleviate inflation fears. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures tumbled more than 3% to below $78 a barrel Tuesday to hit their lowest intraday level since late August.

In single-stock news, shares in Uber Technologies (UBER) added 3.7% after the ride sharing company's quarterly earnings topped Wall Street's estimates. Homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI) likewise surprised to the upside, with both profit and revenue exceeding analysts' forecasts. DHI stock, which Warren Buffett recently bought for the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, finished the session up 2.9%.

Datadog rallies in relief

But no stock enjoyed a more upbeat reaction to earnings than Datadog (DDOG). The software company that makes tools for monitoring infrastructure and application performance not only beat the Street on the top and bottom lines, but it also upped its forecast. The results were just what a market worried about Datadog's growth trends needed, sending DDOG stock up 28.5% on the day.

"Into the print there was a lot of anxiety about whether Datadog would follow Amazon Web Services to improving [sequential] growth and stable [year-over-year growth]," wrote Bernstein analyst Peter Weed wrote. "Datadog emphatically dispelled these worries."

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Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.