U.S. Major Averages Advanced as Earnings Roll In

Barry Adams
15 Jul, 2024
New York City

Benchmark indexes on Wall Street advanced as investors looked forward to a flood of earnings this week. 

The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite advanced in early trading on Monday as the earnings season picked up pace this week. 

Market sentiment was boosted after Goldman Sachs reported better-than-expected earnings and BlackRock said assets under management advanced in the second quarter. 

This week, investors are looking forward to quarterly results from more than 700 companies, including Charles Schwab, United Health, American Express, Blackstone, Novartis, and J&J. 

The Russell 2000 index gained for the fourth day in a row as investors rotated out of large-cap tech stocks to smaller companies. 

The small-cap focused stocks advanced 1% and extended this year's gain to 7.8%, still lagging the 19% increase in the S&P 500 index. 

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.4% to 5,643.08, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8% to 18,539.12.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 4.49%, 10-year Treasury notes increased to 4.22%, and 30-year Treasury bonds edged higher to 4.47%.

WTI crude oil decreased $0.03 to $82.20 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged down 10 cents to $2.22 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $4.90 to $2,415.07 an ounce, and silver fell 15 cents to $30.62. 

The dollar index, which weighs the U.S. currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower to 104.15.

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Goldman Sachs increased by 0.7% to $483.0 after the financial services company reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings in the second quarter. 

The company reported revenue of $12.73 billion and pre-tax earnings per share of $8.62. 

BlackRock declined 0.5% to $824.27, and the exchange-traded funds manager reported quarterly results that surpassed market expectations. 

Super Micro increased 3.2% to $939.0, and the company is scheduled to be included in the Nasdaq 100 index before July 22. 

Trump Media & Technology soared 52% to $47.23 after Sunday's assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at a political rally in Pennsylvania. 

Trump was released from the hospital, and the gunman was killed by the security service, but the gunman managed to fire multiple shots before he was killed by a secret service agent. 

Alphabet declined 0.2% to $186.31, and the parent company of Google is in advanced talks to acquire cloud company Wiz for as much as $23 billion. 

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.