U.S. Stocks Move Back To The Downside After Initially Extending Recent Rally

(RTTNews) - Stocks extended their recent upward move in early trading on Wednesday but came under pressure over the course of the session. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 sliding into negative territory.

The major averages saw further downside going into the end of the day. While the Dow remained positive, climbing 263.24 points or 0.5 percent to 54,349.12, the S&P 500 dipped 12.97 points or 0.2 percent at 7,723.55 and the Nasdaq slid 221.55 points or 0.8 percent to 26,363.44.

The downturn by the markets as the day progressed may have reflected profit taking following a four-day winning streak, which saw the Dow and S&P 500 reach new record highs.

Lingering concerns about AI spending may also have generated selling pressure after SpaceX (SPCX) reported its first quarterly results as a public company.

While SpaceX reported better than expected second quarter revenues, the rocket company's stock plunged by 13.6 percent as the company also reported a spike in capital spending.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also tumbled by 7 percent on the day despite reporting better than expected second quarter results.

Meanwhile, the narrower Dow held on to some of its early gains due in part to sharp increase by shares of Disney (DIS). Disney jumped by 3.7 percent percent after the entertainment giant reported better than expected fiscal third quarter earnings.

Dow components Amgen (AMGN) and Nvidia (NVDA) also posted significant gains, surging by 4.6 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

In U.S. economic news, payroll processor ADP released a report on Wednesday showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by less than expected in the month of July.

The report said private sector employment rose by 44,000 jobs in July after climbing by a downwardly revised 95,000 jobs in June.

Economists had expected private sector employment to grow by 75,000 jobs compared to the addition of 98,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Energy stocks showed a significant move to the downside over the course of the session amid a continued decrease by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures falling by 1 percent after plummeting by more than 10 percent over the two previous sessions.

Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the NYSE Arca Oil Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index plunged by 3 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Considerable weakness was also visible among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 slump by the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index.

On the other hand, gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 7.6 percent to its best closing level in well over a month.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 3.7 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index jumped by 1.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned mixed over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index closed just above the unchanged line and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing slightly higher. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.0 basis points to 4.617 percent.