Note: Figures recorded at 7:40am AEDT. Updated figures and a video recording will be available at 9am AEDT.
The S&P 500 rose Wednesday as Wall Street tried to claw back some of the steep losses suffered in the previous session.
The 500-stock index advanced 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 72 points, or 0.2%.
Lyft shares jumped 33% after the ride-hailing company posted better-than-expected earnings in the fourth quarter. Airbnb slipped 1% even as the company beat on revenue expectations in its latest quarter.
Shares of Nvidia nudged 1% higher, sending the chipmaker’s market capitalization briefly above that of fellow “Magnificent 7” member Alphabet’s. This follows Nvidia’s 2% slide on Tuesday after rising Treasury yields sunk technology stocks.
On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow lost more than 1% for its worst day since March 2023. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also slumped more than 1%. A hotter-than-anticipated inflation reading early in the morning incited the sell-off as traders fretted that the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates as early as they had hoped.
January’s CPI report likely pushes the likelihood of a Fed rate cut to the second half of 2024, versus investors’ initial expectations of rate cuts as early as March.
Turning to commodities, oil prices reversed earlier gains on Wednesday as U.S. crude inventories surged, reflecting decreased demand, with West Texas Intermediate losing 1.58% to settle at $76.64 a barrel and Brent settling at $81.60 a barrel, down 1.41%. The decline followed a 1% increase earlier in the trading session driven by geopolitical tensions after Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon in response to rockets fired into northern Israel.
Currency
One Australian dollar at 7.45am was buying 64.91 US cents.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed higher. London’s FTSE gained 0.75 per cent, Frankfurt added 0.38 per cent, and Paris closed 0.68 per cent higher.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.69 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.84 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was closed.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.73 per cent lower at 7,547.74.
Ex-dividends
Korvest (ASX:KOV) is paying 25 cents fully franked
Regal Asian Invest (ASX:RG8) is paying 5 cents fully franked
Scentre Group (ASX:SCG) is paying 8.35 cents unfranked
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.
