Stock Market Today: Dow Rises as Apple, Amazon Earnings Approach

Technology stocks are perceived to be able to grow even when economic growth is uncertain. And right now, economic growth is uncertain. U.S. third-quarter GDP is expected to fall to 2.8%, and the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecasting tool puts the number closer to 0.2%.

That economic uncertainty is seen in the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield has sunk to 1.54% from 1.7% hit a week ago, reflecting lowered expectations for inflation and economic demand for the long-term as the Federal Reserve may begin hiking interest rates in 2022. That’s also evident in the two-year Treasury yield, which had risen to 0.56% from 0.46% a week ago. 

The “flattening” of the yield curve “elicited concerns that the market was pricing in a Fed policy mistake, whereby the Fed tightens conditions too quickly and kills the economic expansion,” wrote Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research. 

Strong earnings reports were providing a small boost for the stock market. The aggregate S&P 500 earnings per share result has beaten analyst estimates by about 12%, according to Credit Suisse. Companies beating expectations are seeing their stocks outperform the S&P 500 by 0.8 percentage points, but those missing are underperforming by 3.7 percentage points. 

But earnings will continue to be in the spotlight Thursday, with Big Tech heavyweights

Apple

(ticker: AAPL) and

Amazon

(AMZN) reporting results alongside

Royal Dutch Shell

(RDS.A),

U.S. Steel

(X),

Comcast

(CMCSA),

Caterpillar

(CAT),

Mastercard

(MA),

Merck

(MRK), and others.

Overseas, Hong Kong’s

…