Wall Street Takes A Breather As Inflation Stays Tamed, AMD Hits Record Highs, Apple Struggles: What's Driving Markets Thursday?

Wall Street exhaled a sigh of relief as the Federal Reserve’s favored gauge of inflation cooled as anticipated in January, quelling fears that an unexpected rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) might spill over into the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index.

At noon in New York, the Nasdaq 100 was up 0.4%, striving to erase losses from Wednesday. The S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average exhibited more subdued reactions, with gains of 0.1% and a decline of 0.2%, respectively, while the Russell 2000 edged 0.3% higher.

Among major tech stocks, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD stands out, surging over 6% to achieve a new all-time high, emerging as the top performer in the semiconductor sector today.

Conversely, Apple Inc. AAPL continues to deliver lackluster results, dropping 1% to $178, marking its tenth negative day out of the last thirteen and poised to close at its lowest levels since early November 2023. Recent reports indicate that Apple’s iPhone 15 series is being heavily discounted by resellers in China, signaling a sustained decline in demand.

Treasury yields edged lower as traders adjust their positions in anticipation of a rate cut in June. The popular iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT rose 0.6%.

In the volatile crypto market, Bitcoin BTC/USD is down over 2% to $61,000, after hitting an intraday high of $63,675.

Thursday’s Performance In Major Indices, ETFs

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 0.1% higher to $506.76, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA fell 0.1% to $389.15 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ rose 0.4% to $437.06, according to Benzinga Pro data.

The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU, was the notable outperformer for the second straight session, up by 0.8%, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE continued to lag behind, down 0.6%.

Thursday’s Stock Movers

• Crypto-related stocks took a hit as Bitcoin prices fell. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. MARA tumbled over 17%, despite the company reported sharply higher-than-predicted profits last quarter. Peers Riot Platforms Inc. RIOT, Bit Digital Inc. BTBT and Coinbase Global Inc. COIN fell 12%, 6.5% and 2.5%, respectively.
• Snowflake Inc. SNOW tumbled nearly 20%, after the company announced that CEO Frank Slootman has decided to retire from his role as CEO. The AI-related company saw its revenue and earnings beating Wall Street’s analyst predictions last quarter.
• Hormel Foods Corp. HRL rose over 13%, marking the highest daily performance among S&P 500 stocks, after the company unveiled better-than-expected results last quarter.
• Other companies reacting to earnings were Monster Beverage Corp. MNST, up 5.7%, Celsius Holdings Inc. CELH, up 19%, Okta Inc. OKTA, up 19%, Hayward Holdings Inc. HAYW, up 15%, Natera Inc. NTRA, up 12%, The Chemours Company CC, down 31%, DoubleVerify Holdings Inc. DV, down 17%, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC.
• Stocks reporting after the close include Autodesk, Inc. ADSK, Cooper Companies, Inc. COO, Fisker, Inc. FSR, Zscaler, Inc. ZS, Hewlett Packard Enterprises Company HPE, NetApp, Inc. NTAP and SoundHound AI, Inc. SOUND.

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Image: Midjourney