The Dow Jones today rebounds from a brutal two-day sell-off fueled by concerns about rising bond yields.
Dow futures are up 213 points in pre-market hours as investors weighed on U.S. President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address. Automatic Data Processing reported that private payrolls increased by 234,000 in January, topping average expectations of 185,000.
Here are the numbers from Tuesday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
Index
Previous Close
Point Change
Percentage Change
Dow Jones
26076.89
-362.59
-1.37%
S&P 500
2822.43
-31.10
-1.09%
Nasdaq
7402.48
-64.02
-0.86%
Now here's a closer look at today's most important market events and stocks, plus Wednesday's economic calendar.
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On Tuesday night, President Trump delivered the State of the Union address. During the speech, Trump described a "new American moment," touting the performance of the U.S. economy, his administration's efforts to roll back regulations, and recent tax reform. Trump called for Congress to bring a $1.5 trillion infrastructure program to a vote in order to rebuild the country's highways, energy grid, and public transportation.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will lead the second day of the Fed Open Market Committee's January meeting. The Fed is not expected to raise interest rates this month, but traders will be looking for clues out of the central bank's announcement later today. Investors largely anticipate the central bank will hike rates three times in 2018.
Yesterday, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) announced plans to form a corporation dedicated to slashing healthcare costs for several hundred thousand of their employees. The new firm could provide a significant shakeup to the U.S. healthcare system. The proposal could hurt pharmacy stocks and benefits managers. And it will also set up one of our top profit plays of 2018. Here's what you need to know to profit.
Gold prices pushed slightly higher again thanks to a weaker dollar. Just before 9 a.m., an ounce of gold sat at $1,346. The precious metal is set to close the month up more than 3% thanks to rising demand. In addition, the State of the Union address failed to offer much support for a dollar sitting near multi-year lows.
Crude oil prices fell Wednesday morning. But don't let that get you down if you're bullish on crude. This has been the strongest January for prices since 2013. The WTI crude oil price today dipped 0.2%. Brent crude dipped 0.4%.
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Shares of Eli Lilly Co. (NYSE: LLY) added nearly 1% after the drug maker topped Wall Street earnings expectations before the bell. Eli Lilly reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.14 thanks to strong sales of its diabetes and psoriasis treatments. The firm also hiked its full-year forecast. Today's small gains were also positive given that President Trump had called for the U.S. government to intervene on rising drug costs during the State of the Union address last night. Markets don't appear convinced that Congress will be able to reign in runaway drug costs.
Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) headlines a very busy day of earnings reports from technology and manufacturing giants. Wall Street expects that the social media giant will report EPS of $1.96 on top of $12.58 billion in revenue. There have been rumors that Facebook has experienced a downturn in teen users over the last year. The company is also expected to provide more insight today on the role of Russian hackers in U.S. politics.
Shares of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) surged another 5.7% after the company easily topped Wall Street earnings expectations. The company reported EPS of $3.06, well above the average analyst forecast of $2.89. Boeing also reported very strong revenue figures and offered a very bullish forecast for 2018. Boeing was the top-performing Dow component in 2017 and has been a long-time favorite recommendation of Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon.
Look for additional earnings reports from Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), PayPal Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), and Tractor Supply Co. (Nasdaq: TSCO).
Wednesday's U.S. Economic Calendar (all times EST)
MBA Mortgage Applications at 7 a.m.
ADP Employment Report at 8:15 a.m.
Employment Cost Index at 8:30 a.m.
Three-Year Note Announcement at 8:30 a.m.
10-Year Note Announcement at 8:30 a.m.
30-Year Bond Announcement at 8:30 a.m.
Treasury Refunding Announcement at 8:30 a.m.
Chicago PMI at 9:45 a.m.
Pending Home Sales Index at 10 a.m.
EIA Petroleum Status Report at 10:30 a.m.
FOMC Meeting Announcement at 2 p.m.
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