Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing Higher on Strong Economic Data
An upbeat report on new home sales helped fuel an impressive rebound for stocks today.
The sting of President Joe Biden's proposal to roughly double the capital gains tax for wealthy Americans eased today, with markets finishing a choppy week on a high note.
"I'm shocked the market was surprised that higher capital gains taxes are coming," says LPL Financial chief market strategist Ryan Detrick. "We knew this was going to happen the second President Biden won in November. Calmer heads prevailed today with the broad rally at least."
And a broad rally it was indeed, thanks in part to a few upbeat economic reports. Namely, data showed new home sales in the U.S. rose by more than 20% month-over-month in March, while the service sector expanded at its quickest pace since 2009 last month and factory activity signaled improvement in April.
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.
Tech stocks led the charge higher, with Apple (AAPL, +1.8%) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +4.7%) two of the day's notable gainers. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% at 34,043, the S&P 500 was 1.1% higher at 4,180, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.4% to 14,016.
Other action in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 1.8% to finish at 2,271.
- U.S. crude oil futures added 1.2% to settle at $62.14 per barrel.
- Gold futures declined 0.2% to $1,777.80 per ounce.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) plunged 7.4% to settle at 17.33.
- Bitcoin prices sank by 3.7% to $50,983. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
Where are the Low-Cost ETFs?
Let's face it: expenses matter when it comes to investing. This point was made abundantly clear in late 2019, when most online brokerages in the U.S. went commission-free with stocks, exchange-traded funds and options in order to draw more investors to the table. And in recent years, several index fund providers have begun reducing their fees.
While Vanguard was one of the pioneers in the low-cost investing space, many other providers have since followed suit. We've taken a fresh look at some of the cheapest index funds on the market right now – including one ETF whose expense ratio is zero.
With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.
-
What Happens Financially When You Work One More Year?
The impact of saving more, spending less later and benefiting from an extra year or more of compounding can be truly staggering.
By Andrew Rosen, CFP®, CEP Published
-
Seven Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund
You may want to splurge, but using your tax refund to save for the future or pay down debt is a much better idea — even if not as fun.
By Kathryn Pomroy Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Sinks 475 Points After JPMorgan Earnings
Stocks sold off sharply Friday on disappointing bank forecasts and speculation that Iran is planning an attack on Israel.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Nasdaq Leads as Magnificent 7 Stocks Rise
Strength in several mega-cap tech and communication services stocks kept the main indexes higher Thursday.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Tumble After a Hot Inflation Print
Equities retreated after inflation data called the Fed's rate-cut plans into question.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks End Mixed Ahead of Key Inflation Reading
Equities struggled before tomorrow's big Consumer Price Index report.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Closed Mixed in Choppy Trading
Volatility returned as market participants adjusted their expectations for rate cuts.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Rally After Blowout Jobs Report
Stocks soared into the weekend as investors brushed off strong payrolls data and lowered rate-cut expectations.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing Lower as March Jobs Report Looms
The main indexes turned negative in mid-afternoon trading as all eyes turned to tomorrow morning's key employment update.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks End Mixed After Powell Speech
Intel and Walt Disney were two of the worst Dow Jones stocks Wednesday.
By Karee Venema Published