S&P 500 Climbs as Energy Powers Ahead

© Reuters.

By Yasin Ebrahim

AiVIF.com – The S&P 500 climbed Wednesday, as a rally in energy and industrials helped the broader market recover some of its recent losses.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8%, or 258 points, the Nasdaq climbed 0.6%.

Energy rallied more than 3% as data showing a larger-than-expected draw in weekly U.S. crude inventories eased investor fears about the virus impact on energy.

Crude oil inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of 3.5 million barrels.

The sharp jump in oil prices comes just days after the OPEC+ increased production by 400,000 barrels per day.

Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE:COG), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), and EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG) were among the top gainers, with the latter up more than 6%.

Megacap tech stocks were mostly higher, despite rising Treasury yields, the enemy of growth stocks.

Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) were higher. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) proved an exception to the broader market climb.  

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the standout performer, up more than 1%, after hiking its dividend and announcing the $60 billion stock buyback program.

Casino stocks were on the backfoot on reports China is looking to strengthen regulatory oversight in the Asian gambling mecca of Macau.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) slumped 16%, Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN) fell 8%, and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) was down about 4%.

On the economic front, investors digested mixed economic data as manufacturing activity fell short of expectations, while industrial production was in-line with economists forecasts.

“Demand is very high for a variety of goods in short supply, but manufacturers cannot keep up with demand due to a shortage of materials,” Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said in a note.

The move higher in the broader market comes as investors eye progress on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending plan.

Biden is expected to meet with holdout Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema at the White House on Wednesday. Both Manchin and Senema favor trimming the proposed $3.5 trillion budget plan.

In other news, Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) slumped 6% after warning that the impact of delta variant could hurt its third-quarter profits by 50% to 60%.