By Yasin Ebrahim
The Dow climbed on Wednesday as investors digested the latest earnings from corporates and ongoing efforts nationwide to reopen for business following economically-damaging lockdowns.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.25%, or 303 points. The S&P 500 gained 1.48%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.71%.
Investor hopes the economy may mount a quicker recovery were given a boost on Wednesday as all U.S. States partially reopened.
That added to optimism over a rebound in crude demand, sending oil prices and energy stocks higher just as data showed weekly U.S. crude supplies fell more than expected.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), up 6.6%, Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR), up 7%, and Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC), up 6%, were among the notable movers in energy.
Financials, meanwhile, clawed back some of their losses from a day earlier, led by banks, though weaker U.S. Treasury yields kept a lid on gains.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) rose more than 2%.
The weaker backdrop for bond yields comes on a historic day in the Treasuries market as the Treasury sold 20-year bonds for the first time since 1986 as the U.S. seeks to fund its massive stimulus program.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 5% as investors bet its new e-commerce feature, Facebook Shops, which makes it easer for customers to sell on Instagram and Facebook, will help the social media giant compete with Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG).
On the earnings front, investors continued to digest mixed reports from retailers.
Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) cut gains to trade about flat as executives warned that same-store sales growth is expected to "moderate" later in 2020. That cooled optimism on the stock after the company reported that same-store sales jumped 11% in its fiscal first quarter.
Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) slipped 8% after its first-quarter losses swelled to $1.41 per share on revenue of $588 million, missing estimates for losses for $0.22 per share on revenue of $633.5 million.
In healthcare, Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) turned positive as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) upgraded its price target on the stock to $90 from $37. Its shares fell 10% on Tuesday after a Stat news report suggested that recent optimism over the company's early-stage results for its potential Covid-19 vaccine was overdone.
Investor attention will turn to the Federal Reserve minutes expected at 2:00 PM ET (18:00 GMT) for further clues into the central bank's thinking on monetary policy.
