The three major U.S. equities indexes again closed lower on Tuesday. The Nasdaq closed 2.3% lower, the Dow Jones industrials dipped by 0.2% and the S&P 500 lost 1.2%. Among S&P 500 stocks, losers outnumbered winners by slightly more than three to one on Tuesday. Nine of 11 sectors closed lower, led by tech (down 2.3%), communications services (2.0%) and consumer cyclicals (1.7%). The energy (up 3.9%) and financial (0.4%) sectors ended higher.
Crude oil settled at $85.60 on Tuesday and traded up about 0.4% in early trading Wednesday at $85.93. The 10-year/two-year U.S. Treasury note spread ended the day at 0.749%, essentially flat.
These five S&P 500 stocks closed with the biggest gains on Tuesday: American Express (up 8.92%), Occidental Petroleum (8.12%), Halliburton (7.00%), Marathon Oil (6.56%) and Diamondback Energy (6.33%).
Tuesday’s biggest losers among S&P 500 stocks were NextEra Energy (down 8.33%), Monolithic Power Systems (6.87%), Paycom (6.63%), IDEXX (6.54%) and Xilinx (6.53%).
At around 7:00 a.m. ET Wednesday morning, S&P 500 futures traded up about 1.56%, the Nasdaq traded up 2.24% and the Dow traded up about 1.14%.
The leading gainer among S&P 500 stocks in Wednesday’s premarket trading was ServiceNow Inc. (NASDAQ: NOW), up around 3.70% at $513.16. The company reports quarterly results after markets close.
Carnival Corp. & PLC (NYSE: CCL) traded up 3.56% at $20.92. The company had no specific news.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) traded up 3.10%. Ford and GM CEOs are scheduled to meet with President Biden Wednesday to discuss the president’s economic recovery plan.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) traded up 2.96% in Wednesday’s premarket. The company had no specific news.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH) traded up by 2.91% Wednesday. The company had no specific news.
Stocks trading lower in Wednesday’s premarket session included Nielsen Holdings PLC (NYSE: NLSN), which was down 3.82% to $18.65. Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock from Hold to Sell Wednesday morning and dropped the price target to $17.
Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) traded down about 1.2% Wednesday morning at $172.42. The company had no specific news.
Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) closed up slightly on Tuesday and traded down by less than 1% in Wednesday’s premarket at $79.38. The company had no specific news.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) traded down by less than 1% Wednesday morning. J.P. Morgan analysts dropped their rating on the stock from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $62 to $56.
General Dynamics Inc. (NYSE: GD) traded down by less than 1% Wednesday morning to $204.00. The defense contractor missed revenue estimates, although it did beat on earnings.
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