Stocks Soar as Fears of Interest-Rate Hikes Subside
2:57 pm Friday, June 24th, 2022
The major averages sport solid midday gains, as the S&P 500 keeps pace with the Nasdaq (+2.5%) while the Russell 2000 outperforms slightly. Thanks to the market’s strength during the abbreviated week, the S&P 500 is on course for only its second weekly gain in the past 13 weeks.
Today’s advance makes for a continuation of yesterday’s rally, putting the S&P 500 just a handful of points below its closing level from two weeks ago. All eleven sectors display midday gains with seven groups up at least 2.0%.
Growth-sensitive sectors have been at the forefront of today’s advance with financials (+3.4%), industrials (+3.2%), and materials (+2.9%) sitting atop today’s leaderboard while defensively-oriented health care (+0.9%), consumer staples (+1.0%), and utilities (+1.3%) underperform.
Heavily weighted Wells Fargo (WFC) appears among today’s leaders in bank stocks as it extends last week’s rally off a 15-month low while all remaining sector components also trade in the green.
Transport stocks have contributed to the outperformance in the industrials sector with FedEx (FDX) rallying past its 200-day moving average (230.50) to a level not seen since early February after the company’s above-consensus guidance for FY23 overshadowed a bottom-line miss. Air carriers also outperform with American Airlines (AAL) trading atop the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+3.9%).
With today’s strong rally, ten out of eleven sectors are on course to finish the week in positive territory while energy remains down 0.8% for the week after underperforming in recent days. Today, however, the sector is following crude oil, which has climbed $2.42, or 2.3%, to $106.69/bbl.
Treasuries are pulling back after two days of strong gains, sending the 10-yr yield higher by six basis points to 3.13%.
