Wall Street bounced back on Tuesday, after four consecutive bearish sessions. The bulls pushed equities higher despite the delay in new stimulus to be adopted by Congress and a rapid increase in the number of COVID cases.
The rebound was driven by tech stocks, with Amazon surging over 5.5% after Bernstein upgraded the company stock to ‘outperform’, citing more active premium subscribers and merchants. Elsewhere, Apple, Google’s parent and Microsoft gained no less than 1.5%.
Thus, Nasdaq was the best performer on Tuesday, securing a gain of 1.71%. The S&P 500 and Dow rose by 1.05% and 0.52%, respectively. Seven out of 11 sectors tracked within the S&P 500 index closed higher, with IT and consumer discretionary enjoying the highest returns.
Oracle couldn’t benefit from the general bullishness, slipping 0.3% after a Chinese newspaper said that the local government wouldn’t approve the software giant’s proposed deal to acquire stake in ByteBance’s TikTok in an effort to handle US operations together with Walmart.
Tesla dropped 5.6% after CEO Elon Musk said that some of the key innovations presented at the “Battery Day” are several years away.
Nike shares surged in regular and after-hours trading after the company reported its Q1 performance that beat even the most optimistic forecasts. The stock was up 3.1% at close and over 8% after hours.
Asian stocks are mixed on Wednesday, as the markets are gradually switching to the bullish tone triggered by Wall Street.
At the time of writing, China’s Shanghai Composite is up 0.32% and the Shenzhen Component has edged up 0.45%. US-China tensions are in the spotlight again, after US President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly that China is to be blamed for "unleashing” the new coronavirus on the world. China accused Trump of lying and exploiting the UN platform. Still, Chinese President Xi Jinping told UN delegates that he had no intention of getting stuck in either a Cold War or a hot war with any country.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down 0.08% in its first trading day of the week, but the index is departing from daily lows and might close higher. South Korea’s KOSPI is up 0.17% after an initial decline.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down 0.17%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 has surged 2.42%. Border restrictions between Queensland and New South Wales are easing as the country has managed to contain the second wave of the coronavirus.
