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Stock Market News for June 26, 2024
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
O S&P 500 eked out a small gain on Wednesday as investors priced their holdings after a booming first half led by artificial intelligence plays.
The broad market index ended the day up 8.60 points, or 0.16%, to close at 5,477.90. O Dow Jones Industrial Average added 15.64 points, or 0.04%, to close at 39,127.80. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 87.50 points, or 0.49%, to close at 17,805.16.
The Nasdaq is set for an 18.6% gain in the first half due to a big run in Nvidia. After trading lower for much of the day, the chipmaker closed up about 0.3%. It was a modest move after Tuesday’s 7% increase. The AI chipmaker’s $3.1 trillion market cap has come to dominate the capitalization-weighted S&P 500, and its 150% rise in 2024 has raised concerns that most other stocks are failing to participate in the rally. this year.
Amazon shares jumped 3.9%, leading the Nasdaq’s rise. The stock reached an all-time high and covered $2 trillion in market value for the first time on Wednesday, joining Nvidia, Litter, Alphabet It is Microsoft in reaching the milestone.
Outside of the big tech names, the market has been quite sluggish as investors await new inflation data on Friday with the release of the May personal consumption expenditures price index. The Federal Reserve is keeping a close eye on this indicator and investors are hopeful that the central bank will lower interest rates at some point later this year if price increases continue to moderate.
The recent pullback across the broader market has raised speculation about whether the 2024 rally, largely driven by Nvidia, followed its course. The S&P 500 is trading less than 1% from where Wall Street strategists expect the broad market index to end the year, according to the Survey with CNBC market strategists.
“The stock market is very expensive right now,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group. The investor believes a stock price correction and a reckoning are on the horizon for megacap technology names.
“Whether or not last week’s volatility in technology stocks is the start of something deeper, or whether that reckoning is yet to come, remains to be seen, but excessive investor sentiment, euphoria and over-the-top momentum they always end the same way,” Bahnsen added.
Most stocks fell in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, but there were some positive highlights in the market. FedEx jumped 15.5% after issuing better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. Rivian Automotive soared 23.2% after Volkswagen Group said it would invest up to US$5 billion in the electric vehicle company.
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