Bank Earnings Lift Wall Street, Gold Hits $4,200: What's Moving Markets Wednesday?

Wall Street rose on Wednesday, with investor optimism lifted by strong bank and corporate earnings alongside growing expectations for further Federal Reserve rate cuts — keeping trade concerns sidelined for now.

• SPY is trading at elevated levels. Get the market research here.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to 6,680, putting it within a single percentage point of erasing last Friday's sell-off. The Nasdaq 100 advanced 0.9% to 24,790, while the Dow Jones added 0.3% to 46,485, fully recovering from last week's decline.

Small-caps rose for a third consecutive session, as the Russell 2000 gained 0.7%, notching new record highs.

Among major earnings reports, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) both topped Street’s expectations, sending their shares up over 5% and 4.5%, respectively — their strongest single-day performance since April 9, when Donald Trump announced a pause on sweeping tariff increases.

Markets are now fully pricing in a 25-basis-point rate cut in October, with 95% odds of another reduction in December, fueling rallies in both equities and precious metals.

Gold jumped 1% to $4,200 per ounce, on track for its 13th gain in the past 15 sessions and its best year since 1979, up 60% year-to-date. Silver also sharply rose, boasting a 2.2% gain to $52.50 per ounce.

Despite the upbeat tone across markets, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) moved the other way, sliding 2% to $110,000.

Wednesday’s Performance In Major U.S. Indices, ETFs

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) rose 0.5% to $612.05.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) inched 0.3% up to $464.02.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 0.9% to $603.07.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) gained 0.8% to $249.93.
• The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLRE) outperformed, up 1.3%; the Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLI) lagged, down 0.5%.

Wednesday’s Earnings Movers

• Bank of America Corporation up 4.5%
• Morgan Stanley up 5.5%
• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) down 3.67%
• Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR) down 6.46%
• Prologis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) up 4.0%
• PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) down 2.26%
• Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) down 1.31%
• Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) down 0.57%
• First Horizon Corporation (NYSE:FHN) down 12.93%

Stocks slated to report earnings after the close include Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI), United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT), Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP), Synovus Financial (NYSE:SNV), Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE:REXR), MarketAxess Holdings (NASDAQ:MKTX) and First Industrial Realty Trust (NYSE:FR).

S&P 500’s Top 5 Gainers On Wednesday

S&P 500’s Top 5 Losers On Wednesday

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