Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during opening bell in New York City on August 21, 2023.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
The S&P 500 advanced Wednesday and was on track for a four-day winning streak, as investors assess new U.S. economic data.
The key index climbed 0.3% above the 4,500 level, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 52 points or 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6%. The S&P’s four-day gain helped the index slim month-to-date losses to roughly 1.75%.
The S&P 500 tech sector continued to climb for a fourth-straight day, aided by a 1.8% climb in chipmaker Nvidia. Shares of Apple climbed more than 1%, after the company sent out invites for a Sept. 12 launch event where the iPhone 15 is expected to be unveiled.
Wednesday’s moves come as traders pore over disappointing payrolls data. ADP said private employers added 177,000 jobs in August. That’s well below a revised July number of 371,000. It also missed a Dow Jones estimate of 200,000.
Meanwhile, annual gross domestic product growth was downwardly revised on Wednesday to 2.1% from the previous 2.4% forecast.
This is the second day investors appear to treat weaker-than-expected economic data as good news for stocks.
“Traders and investors alike want to see ‘follow through’ in today’s market action, helping to confirm that the uptick in market performance is a more viable move as the market heads into September,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial.
On Tuesday, the major U.S. stock benchmarks rallied following the release of disappointing consumer confidence figures and a bigger-than-forecast drop in U.S. job openings for July. This sparked hope among traders that the Federal Reserve could lighten its policy stance sometime soon.
Shares of Hewlett-Packard dipped 8% after reporting quarterly results which included a revenue miss. Shares of Insulet added 8.3% after chief executive James Hollingshead increased his personal stake in the company by 19.4%
Tuesday’s “move goes back to a ‘bad news is good news’ type environment, which tends to be the case when investors are worried about rates and Fed policy,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group. “Any softness in economic data results in less upward pressure on yields, and that helps equities.”