Stock Market Today: Debt-Ceiling Band-Aid Gets Stocks Into the Green
Another day, another change of direction for the stock market?
That looked to be the case early Wednesday, with stocks widely down following Tuesday’s rally, which itself followed a lousy Monday for equities. But a turn of events in America’s debt-crisis saga gave stocks an afternoon jolt.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in response to recent pressure from both his Democratic congressional peers and President Joe Biden, offered up a temporary fix, saying Republicans will “allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December.”
Temporary relief, yes, but it was enough to send equities into modest positive territory. The defensively minded utilities (+1.6%) and consumer staples (+1.0%) sectors improved the most, but technology and tech-esque mega-caps such as Microsoft (MSFT, +1.5%), Amazon.com (AMZN, +1.3%) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, +1.1%) also enjoyed a decent updraft.
That helped lift the Nasdaq Composite 0.5% to 14,501; the S&P 500 (+0.4% to 4,363) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.3% to 34,416) also finished in the green.
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 improved in the afternoon, too, but still finished down 0.6% to 2,215.
- Affirm Holdings (AFRM) surged 20.0% today after Target (TGT, -0.3%) unveiled a new partnership with the “buy now, pay later” company ahead of the holiday shopping season. “We know our guests want easy and affordable payment options that work within their family’s budget,” said Gemma Kubat, Target’s president of financial and retail services in the retailer’s blog post. AFRM is now up roughly 180% since its May lows near $48.
- Dow Inc. (DOW, -3.3%) was the industrial average’s worst stock today. The decline came after Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider outlined plans at the chemical company’s annual investor day for DOW to get carbon neutrality by 2050. Ungerleider also said these efforts, along cost-cutting efforts, will help the company realize $3 billion in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) growth.
- U.S. crude futures retreated 1.9% to $77.43 per barrel. The pullback from crude oil’s highest level in six years – which also snapped a five-day winning streak – came amid reports suggesting Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasing gas supplies to Europe in order to stabilize the market.
- Gold futures eked out a 0.05% gain to settle at $1,761.80 an ounce.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) slipped 1.2% to 21.05.
- Bitcoin prices reached their highest point since May, rocketing 7.5% higher to $55,083.96. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
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