Stock market today: Wall Street claws back some of the ground it lost a day earlier
By Yuri Kageyama And Matt Ott, The Associated Press on February 14, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks are clawing back some of their sharp losses from the day before, as conditions calm a bit on Wall Street. The S&P 500 was 0.6 % higher in early trading Wednesday. It had tumbled 1.4% a day earlier following a hotter-than-expected report on inflation. The Dow was up 97 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher. A calmer bond market was helping keep things steadier. Treasury yields were easing after shooting upward a day earlier after the inflation report. DaVita jumped after the health care company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Wall Street is poised to bounce back after surprisingly hot U.S. inflation data sent stocks tumbling this week. Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.5% before the bell and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%. With little in the way of market-moving economic data to be released Wednesday, the focus is back on corporate earnings. Lyft shares jumped 62% after the bell Tuesday thanks to a typo in the the ride-hailing company’s earnings release that sent investors’ algorithms – also known as “bots” – into a buying frenzy. Lyft’s fourth-quarter report initially forecast that an important profit metric was expected to climb by 500 basis points in 2024. However, the company soon informed investors that there was one zero too many in that number and corrected it to 50. Shares retreated after the correction but remain nearly 22% higher before the bell after the company topped most expectations for the quarter. Online vacation rental booker Airbnb slid 5% after it reported losing $349 million in the fourth quarter due to an income tax settlement with Italy. The company forecast first-quarter revenue that would meet or beat Wall Street expectations, however, Airbnb said the pace of bookings growth is likely to “moderate” from the fourth quarter into the first. Coming after the bell Wednesday are the latest quarterly results from Cisco Systems and Wyndham Hotels. In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.6%, while Germany’s DAX added 0.4%. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.9%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index resumed trading after the Lunar New Year holiday, surging 0.8% to 15,879.38 after opening lower. Markets in mainland China remain closed all week. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.7% to 37,703.32. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.7% to 7,574.70. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.1% to 2,620.42. India’s Sensex gained 0.2% and the SET in Bangkok lost 0.6%. Back in the U.S., Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the consumer price index rose 0.3% from December to January, up from a 0.2% increase the previous month. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 3.1%. Even after the surprising inflation report, the likeliest outcome is still for the U.S. economy to manage a perfect landing and avoid a painful recession as inflation cools, according to Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, co-chief investment officer of the multi-asset solutions business in Goldman Sachs Asset Management. But she said there is still a risk that the economy will fall into a recession under the weight of high interest rates, or that inflation will reaccelerate. Fed officials have said they were penciling in three cuts to rates this year, as inflation hopefully cools toward their 2% target from its peak above 9% two summers ago. Earlier, traders were forecasting as many as six cuts in 2024. Now, they’re largely betting on three or four cuts. In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude picked up 16 cents to $78.03 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 22 cents to $82.99 a barrel. The U.S. dollar was hovering back above 150 Japanese yen, falling to 150.65 yen from 150.86 yen. In other currency trading, the euro cost $1.0707, down from $1.0712. 19-18
