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S&P 500, Nasdaq eke out new closing highs

Published 02/11/2020, 04:31 PM
Updated 02/11/2020, 04:31 PM
© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) - S&P 500 and the Nasdaq inched to their second consecutive record closing highs on Tuesday as Chinese officials said the deadly coronavirus epidemic could be contained by April.

But the Dow closed flat, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared their gains after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued orders to large tech companies to provide information on mergers that were too small to report to antitrust regulators..

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the biggest drag on all three major U.S. stock indexes following FTC's demand for data from company. Data was also requested from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).

The World Health Organization, or WHO, called the Chinese coronavirus "public enemy number one." But China's foremost medical adviser on the outbreak said the crisis could be over by April, soothing jitters over the fast-moving epidemic, even as supply chains ruptured and Chinese firms began laying off workers.

"As much as there's a desire to push stock higher there's also an exhaustion," Oliver Pursche, vice chairman and chief market strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York. "It's letting the air out and exhaling."

"The best thing that could happen for stocks this year is that we go sideways for a while and let markets catch their breath."

Market participants watched closely as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell began his semiannual economic update before congress.

Powell's remarks reiterated his view that the economy, in its 11th year of expansion, remains "resilient," but that the central bank was closely monitoring potential risks, including the coronavirus.

"Powell addressed the coronavirus and acknowledged that it might be a catalyst for the Fed to take action if warranted," Pursche added. "It means the Fed is keenly aware of the risks but it also means that the risks are very real."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, the S&P 500 gained 5.66 points, or 0.17%, to 3,357.75 and the Nasdaq Composite added 10.55 points, or 0.11%, to 9,638.94.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but communications services, consumer staples and technology closed in positive territory, with real estate showing the largest percentage gain.

T-Mobile shares jumped 11.8% after a federal judge approved its purchase of Sprint, clearing the path for a deal originally valued at $26 billion.

Sprint surged 77.5%, while larger rival Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) slid 2.6%.

Cell tower operators, including SBA Communications Corp (NASDAQ:SBAC), American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) and Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI) Corp, gained between 4% and 7% on expectations that the deal could increase tower demand.

Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UAA) tumbled 16.7% after the sportswear company forecast a surprise drop in 2020 profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.31-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.75-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 80 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 152 new highs and 60 new lows.

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.33 billion shares, compared with the 7.67 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

Latest comments

I think the markets are underestimating the impacts of the coronavirus.The number of reported cases has gone down today but that because the chinese have been home for 2 weeks, they've gone back to work so it's going to go up again. Remerber, there is no vaccine.The mortality rate is not 2%. We must compare the number of deaths to the number of contamined one month ago and no to the number of contamined today because of the incubation phase.In reallity it is at least 4% and it is highly contagious.So it's not over, It's beginning.
Recycling old news from China
Investing.com hasn't made a single peep about what just transpired over the past couple of hours. Old news now I suppose. Why bother.
Nope! Thanks Jerome Powell for ruining our day. Record highs to blood bath in minutes.
What the heck just happened?
  It is going to be a long 2020.
  It looks like extreme short term memory is having some affect as the market is coming back a bit just before the bell.
 right
Makes no sense to link this to optimism over the virus, it is going up over something else.
phase 2 corona virus deal optimism
Omg. I'm dead laughing
mkt going higher is funny ???
I read an article today that said the coronavirus was infecting people through the plumbing in their apartment complex..
lol coronavirus optimism
money trumps any viruses
Be honest. printed money is real power. How virus can be cured so easily fed money or CCP money?
insanity
Corona virus optimism, Trade optimism, ... wash, rinse, repeat
market makes no sense but the only thing that does would be that investors expect the fed to step in if the market drops as they've been doing..
The Corona virus isn't even close to peaking. The CCP is lying about the numbers. The latest is they won't count infections of those who test positive but have not symptoms. Insane!
US flu virus nobody care the amount even higher than coronavirus
10000 by eom
musical chairs again...lol
Musical chairs..who will be the sucker in 2020...lol
Irrational exuberance. The death toll went up yesterday just because we didn’t have another 4000 for one day doesn’t mean it’s slowing. The economic implications of this are insane with the markets being just insanely high. This is out of control to the highest level. This is a bulltrap all the way. The Fed will do nothing and they shouldn’t in fact they should be raising rates and stopping the QE immediately. If the economy is so strong. They’re damaging it more and more every day they inflate the bubble
short it, every time I saw ATH I buy 100 shorts.
Hope is an emotion and emotions are inefficient. The argument  as to whether markets are efficient or inefficient keeps entering my mind for some reason.
this is going to be hilarious when they realise over 3000 are dead
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