S&P 500 Hits New Record, Hurtles Towards 5,000

Wall Street gained Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 scaling a new record high and closing in on 5,000, as investors took stock of major corporate earnings and assessed remarks from policymakers for more clues on the outlook for interest rate cuts.

Ford rose 3.5% as the automaker increased first-quarter dividend and decided to scale back investments in new capacity for loss-making electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, Snap slumped 35.1% to a two-month low on missing quarterly revenue estimates, as the Snapchat owner struggled to compete for advertising dollars.

With more than half of the S&P 500 companies having reported quarterly results, 81.2% surpassed profit expectations, according to LSEG data on Tuesday.

“The two biggest things that could cause a selloff are if inflation surprises on the upside, or the Fed says that we have changed from an easing bias to a tightening bias,” Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist for Blue Chip Daily Trend Report, said.

With Fed Chair Jerome Powell ruling out a March interest rate reduction, traders are awaiting fresh clues from central bankers on the timing of the policy easing.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari noted he expects two to three rate cuts this year for now, while Fed Governor Adriana Kugler said more assurance is needed before lowering rates.

At 11:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 160.16 points, or 0.42%, at 38,681.52, the S&P 500 was up 31.87 points, or 0.64%, at 4,986.10, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 106.21 points, or 0.68%, at 15,715.21.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors advanced, led by a 0.9% gain in the tech sector.

Among other stocks, New York Community Bancorp’s shares sank 13% even as the bank, led by its newly appointed executive chairman Alessandro DiNello, vowed to cut its exposure in the troubled commercial real estate segment.

Uber forecast quarterly core profit and gross bookings above estimates. However, its shares were last down 1.8% on deferring announcements related to capital allocation plans to its investor day on Feb. 14.

Fortinet jumped 2.4% on the cybersecurity firm’s fourth-quarter profit beat, while U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group lost 6.1% following downbeat quarterly revenue.

VF Corp. shed 12.7% after missing expectations for third-quarter results, with the Vans sneaker maker also announcing CFO Matt Puckett’s exit this year.

Enphase Energy surged 17% as the solar inverter maker expects inventory levels to normalize and demand for its products to pick up by the end of second quarter.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.05-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.51-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 67 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 79 new highs and 86 new lows.