Stocks Waver Around Flatline Ahead of Inflation Reports

Barry Adams
10 Dec, 2024
New York City

Major stock averages on Wall Street danced around the flatline ahead of the inflation report on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 index increased a fraction, but the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% as investors stayed focused on mega-cap companies, including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Google-parent Alphabet, and Amazon.com. 

A string of positive labor market reports and factory orders last week supported the case for the Federal Reserve to consider one more rate cut at the last policy meeting of 2024 next week. 

Investors are hoping that consumer and producer price inflation reports later in the week confirm the disinflationary trend in place for more than a year. 

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.1% to 6,060.15, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7% to 19,862.24, and the Russell 2000 index fell by 0.2% to 2,388.08. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.15%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 4.23%, and 30-year Treasury bonds increased to 4.43%.

WTI crude oil decreased $0.23 to $68.15 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged down 9 cents to $3.09 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $13.32 to $2,673.73 an ounce, and silver fell by $0.09 to $31.80. 

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower by 0.26 to 106.42.

 

Stock Movers 

Oracle Corp. dropped 6.5% to $178.06 after the database developer and cloud services provider reported strong revenue growth in the fiscal second quarter, but earnings fell short of expectations. 

Total revenue in the quarter increased 9% to $14.1 billion, driven by a 24% surge in cloud service revenue of $5.9 billion. 

Net income jumped 26% to $3.2 billion from $2.5 billion, and diluted earnings per share advanced to $1.10 from 89 cents a year ago. 

The company's board of directors declared a cash dividend of 40 cents per share payable on January 23 to shareholders on record on January 9. 

MongoDB declined 7.4% to $325.50 after the database developer lifted its outlook for the fourth quarter. 

Total revenue in the third quarter increased 22% to $529.4 million, net loss shrank to $9.8 million from $29.3 million, and diluted loss per share eased to 13 cents from 41 cents a year ago. 

The company estimated fourth quarter revenue to range between $515 million and $519 million, adjusted operating income between $55 million and $58 million, and adjusted earnings per share between 62 cents and 65 cents. 

Vail Resorts jumped 4% to $198.50 after the ski resort operator reported quarterly results. 

Revenue in the fiscal first quarter ending in October increased to $260.3 million from $258.6 million, net loss shrank to $172.8 million from $175.5 million, and diluted loss per share edged up to $4.61 from $4.60 a year ago. 

For the fiscal year 2025, the company revised its estimate of operating earnings to range between $240 million and $316 million from $224 million to $300 million. 

The company declared a cash dividend of $2.22 per share, payable on January 9 to shareholders on record on December 26.