
Stock futures stay flat after Nasdaq closes over 15,000 for the first time
U.S. stock market index futures were flat on Wednesday as investors took a disruption on a daily basis after the Nasdaq Composite closed above 15,000 for the primary time ever.
Futures on the Nasdaq-100 were flat. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost some extent. S&P 500 futures were also flat.
The Nasdaq Composite rose on Tuesday for the fourth session during a row to a record close of 15,019.80, bringing it year-to-date gains to quite 16%. Amazon led the gains on Tuesday. it absolutely was the Nasdaq’s 29th record close of 2021. The tech-heavy benchmark is now up quite 126% from its pandemic low. The S&P 500 also hit a record on Tuesday.

Amazon and Apple were higher again in premarket trading, up about 0.3% each.
Markets are boosted by signs that delta variant cases may well be peaking. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said during a note to clients late Tuesday that the worst is also behind us, citing a falling positivity rate in Florida and Texas.
“We realize equity markets are choppy and therefore the wide variance of perspective means investors don’t have a straightforward consensus. But our central case remains that we are shifting further into full risk-on, with an ‘everything rallies’ into” year-end, wrote Lee. “The cadence of incoming data has improved within the past few days, the foremost notable being the apexing of COVID-19 cases during a number of states.”
Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that its Covid Vaccine booster dose showed promising leads to early stage clinical trials, significantly increasing virus-fighting antibodies.
Wells Fargo Securities head of equity strategy Christopher Harvey also sees more gains on the horizon. He lifted his year-end target to 4,825 on Tuesday, which is 7.5% above where the index finished the day. Harvey’s call is predicated on the S&P’s strength through August carrying over into the ultimate months of the year.
“Over the last 31 years, there are nine instances where the S&P 500 had a price return of 10%+ within the first eight months of the year; over the following four months, the index averaged another +8.4%. None of those instances produced a negative return during those last four months,” he wrote during a note to clients.
The much anticipated Jackson Hole symposium kicks off on Thursday, where central bankers will potentially provide updates on their plan around tapering monetary stimulus. The central bank has been purchasing a minimum of $120 billion of bonds per month to curb longer-term interest rates and jumpstart economic process because the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy.
Chairman Jerome Powell is slated to create remarks on Friday.
“Taper talk is that the worry, but if inflation continues to run hot and economic data continues to be mixed the timing of tapering could get pushed,” noted Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest. “It’s unlikely that the Fed will force a taper on an economy that isn’t ready, and therefore the outlook is becoming less certain with the increase of the Delta variant.”
Bell added that the deciding factor may be August’s jobs report due Sept. 3, providing Covid cases have jumped within the past month because the delta variant spreads.
Several tech companies will report earnings on Wednesday after the market closes, including Dow component Salesforce. Box and Snowflake are on deck.
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