The Dow Falls. Next Up: GDP.
Stocks finished slightly higher on Wednesday afternoon, though the Dow fell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 43 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 was essentially flat, gaining less than 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, finished 0.1% higher.
Stocks on Wednesday fluctuated between gains and losses. Durable goods data, the only notable economic release, came in a smidge higher than estimates, barely impacting estimates for first quarter gross domestic product before they’re released on Thursday.
Tech, however, performed well. Tesla’s stock raced higher, closing up 12%, after CEO Elon Musk hit all the right notes in the company’s Tuesday earnings call and said that self-driving technology is imminent. Other tech stocks, like Texas Instruments and Visa, traded higher after beating on both top and bottom lines.
Investors will be parsing through Meta Platforms’ and IBM’s quarterly earnings after the market close.
“As this important week of earnings season continues we’re seeing generally positive responses,” wrote Navellier & Associates founder Louis Navellier in a research note. But “the verdict on the earnings season has yet to be determined,” he wrote.
For now, traders seem to have forgotten about recent escalation in the Middle East, with conflicts in the region driving last week’s losses.