Stock Market Today: Energy, Industrials Lead a Slow Day for Stocks
A traffic jam at the Suez Canal hoisted energy prices Wednesday, but most of the rest of the market struggled to keep its head above water.
![oil barrels](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7pnttUfDBbmcG4B3rnsyAX-415-80.jpg)
An afternoon slide sent the major indices lower Wednesday, though the Dow's losses were minimal amid a rebound in energy and industrial stocks.
Oil prices rose sharply thanks in part to a logjam in the Suez Canal. (Really: A Panamanian container ship ran aground Tuesday, clogging the Egyptian passage through which 10% of the world's seaborne oil trade passes.)
While the impact on prices is expected to be short-lived, U.S. crude oil futures jumped 5.9% to $61.18 per barrel, sparking strong gains in Dow component Chevron (CVX, +2.7%) as well as other large energy stocks including ConocoPhillips (COP, +2.9%) and EOG Resources (EOG, +4.2%).
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hwgJ7osrMtUWhk5koeVme7-200-80.png](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hwgJ7osrMtUWhk5koeVme7-320-80.png)
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Also Wednesday, IHS Markit's "flash" reading of the service industry's February performance revealed the strongest growth in more than six years, while manufacturing also sped up.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had traded in the black for all but the final couple minutes of Wednesday's session, declined marginally to 32,420. Chevron provided ballast, as did industrial firms Caterpillar (CAT, +1.4%) and Honeywell (HON, +1.7%).
Financials (XLF, +0.4%) also exhibited a little relative strength. In her Congressional testimony on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen "made an interesting comment on stock buybacks," notes Anu Gaggar, senior global investment analyst for Commonwealth Financial Network. "She said that financial institutions look healthier and should have the flexibility to return capital to shareholders. Greater flexibility for buybacks and dividends could be a positive for bank stocks."
Other action in the stock market today:
- The S&P 500 dipped 0.6% to 3,889.
- The Russell 2000 had another brutal session, finishing 2.4% lower to 2,134. The small-cap index has dropped nearly 9% in the past week.
- GameStop (GME, -33.8%) was in the spotlight after reporting its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday evening, and its shares provided fireworks ... just not the right kind. "Sales declined 30.2% to $1.0B, missing consensus, with comps falling 24.6%, also missing expectations," says CFRA analyst Camilla Yanushevsky. "After surging 135% year-to-date, very little has changed in GME's fundamental story. We hold concerns over GME's ability to maintain competitive positioning, namely due to high dependence on brick-and-mortar and secular shift away from physical gaming and toward digital and mobile."
- Gold futures improved by 0.5% to settle at $1,733.20 per ounce.
- Bitcoin prices tumbled 4.4% to $54,770. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
The Nasdaq's Turbulence Continues
Other parts of the market traversed much choppier waters. The on-again, off-again Nasdaq Composite declined 2.0% to 12,961, hobbled by the likes of Tesla (TSLA, -4.8%) and Facebook (FB, -2.9%).
We can't blame the usual bugaboo, though; Treasury yields were on the decline Wednesday. But that's not the only problem the index faces.
"The Nasdaq could drop 20% and still be trading at 30 times (earnings), and the S&P could drop 20% and still have a P/E over 20. Those are both historically high," says Sean O'Hara, president of Pacer ETFs. "We are getting reports of great earnings growth and GDP growth, but both earnings and GDP are still below where they were going into 2020. So, the broad market is expensive."
Among other things, that means it might pay to identify growthier trends, then wait for the right moments to buy at lower prices, be they video game stocks, 5G plays or a host of other high-quality (but overheated) picks.
Meanwhile, remember: Dividends ensure you get paid, even in sideways markets. While there are dozens of ways to peel that orange, one of the simplest is hunkering down into a diversified income fund or two, and keeping fees low so you enjoy more of your yield. Among your options are a quartet of highly thought-of Vanguard dividend and income funds that we've just evaluated – a blend of actively managed and index funds for stock and bond investors alike.
Get Kiplinger Today newsletter — free
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.
Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism.
You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.
-
Visa Is the Worst Dow Stock Wednesday. Here's Why
Visa stock is down sharply Wednesday after the credit card company came up short of revenue expectations for its fiscal Q3.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Another Analyst Moves to the Sidelines on Tesla Stock After Earnings
Tesla stock is spiraling Wednesday after the EV maker's big earnings miss and Wall Street has been quick to weigh in. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Tesla Stock: Another Analyst Moves to the Sidelines After Earnings
Tesla stock is spiraling Wednesday after the EV maker's big earnings miss and Wall Street has been quick to weigh in. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Tumble on Disappointing Big Tech Earnings
Poorly received quarterly results from Alphabet and Tesla sparked a steep selloff in equities.
By Dan Burrows Last updated
-
Stock Market Today: Mega-Cap Tech Rallies to Drag Markets Higher
Markets focused on upcoming earnings from Magnificent 7 stocks rather than chaos in D.C.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Tumble After Spectacular Global Internet Crash
Market participants rushed out of risk assets to end a wild week of trading.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Sinks 533 Points as Big Banks, Mega Caps Slump
Goldman Sachs and Apple were two of the worst-performing blue chip stocks on Thursday.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Semis Get Slammed and Blue Chips Bounce
The potential for more curbs on tech sales to China set off a rotation into blue chips.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Spikes 742 Points After UnitedHealth Earnings
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also scored wins Tuesday albeit with much smaller gains than the blue chip Dow.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Adds 210 Points as Apple, Goldman Hit New Highs
A big rally in blue chips and some dovish Fed speak boosted the equities market Monday.
By Karee Venema Published