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Stock Market Today: Major indexes retreat from opening highs


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  • US stocks opened in positive territory on Wednesday.
  • Wall Street’s main indexes suffered heavy losses on Tuesday.
  • Markets see a less than 50% probability of a Fed rate cut in May after January inflation data.

The S&P 500 (SPX) index rises 0.4% to trade at 4,972.67, the Dow Jones (DJIA) increases 0.12% to 38,315.257, and the Nasdaq (IXIC) gains 0.5% to trade at 15,733.97 at the time of writing.

Stock market news

  • The Industrials Sector is up more than 1% after the opening bell as the best performing major S&P 500 sector, alongside the Communications Services Sector, which gains about 0.8%. 
  • Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) shares rise more than 11% to $77 and IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV) gains nearly 10% at $236.03 as the top performers in the S&P 500 in midday. Akamai Technologies Inc
    (AKAM) loses 8% as the biggest decliner. 
  • The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street’s fear gauge, is down 6% after rising nearly 14% on Tuesday. 
  • Inflation in the US, as measured by the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), softened to 3.1% on a yearly basis in January from 3.4% in December, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Tuesday. This reading came in above the market expectation of 2.9%. The Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.9% in the same period, matching December’s increase and surpassing analysts’ estimate of 3.7%.
  • According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cut in May declined toward 30% from nearly 55% ahead of the January inflation data.
  • Later in the week, January Retail Sales, Industrial Production and Producer Price Index (PPI) data will be featured in the US economic calendar.
  • On Tuesday, Coca-Cola Co. (KO) reported that revenue rose 7.4% to $10.95 billion from a year ago for the quarter ended in December, per Reuters. The company announced that the quarterly net income was $1.97 billion for that period and cited higher product prices and robust demand for the upbeat results.
  • Airbnb Inc. (ABNB) said after the closing bell on Tuesday that quarterly adjusted earnings were 76 cents per share in the quarter ended in December. The company’s revenue increased 16.6% to $2.22 billion from a year ago, but there was a quarterly loss of $349 million.
  • Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Equinix Inc. (EQIX) and Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY) are among the top companies that will report quarterly earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday.

Nasdaq FAQs

The Nasdaq is a stock exchange based in the US that started out life as an electronic stock quotation machine. At first, the Nasdaq only provided quotations for over-the-counter (OTC) stocks but later it became an exchange too. By 1991, the Nasdaq had grown to account for 46% of the entire US securities’ market. In 1998, it became the first stock exchange in the US to provide online trading. The Nasdaq also produces several indices, the most comprehensive of which is the Nasdaq Composite representing all 2,500-plus stocks on the Nasdaq, and the Nasdaq 100.

The Nasdaq 100 is a large-cap index made up of 100 non-financial companies from the Nasdaq stock exchange. Although it only includes a fraction of the thousands of stocks in the Nasdaq, it accounts for over 90% of the movement. The influence of each company on the index is market-cap weighted. The Nasdaq 100 includes companies with a significant focus on technology although it also encompasses companies from other industries and from outside the US. The average annual return of the Nasdaq 100 has been 17.23% since 1986.

There are a number of ways to trade the Nasdaq 100. Most retail brokers and spread betting platforms offer bets using Contracts for Difference (CFD). For longer-term investors, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) trade like shares that mimic the movement of the index without the investor needing to buy all 100 constituent companies. An example ETF is the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ). Nasdaq 100 futures contracts allow traders to speculate on the future direction of the index. Options provide the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the Nasdaq 100 at a specific price (strike price) in the future.

Many different factors drive the Nasdaq 100 but mainly it is the aggregate performance of the component companies revealed in their quarterly and annual company earnings reports. US and global macroeconomic data also contributes as it impacts on investor sentiment, which if positive drives gains. The level of interest rates, set by the Federal Reserve (Fed), also influences the Nasdaq 100 as it affects the cost of credit, on which many corporations are heavily reliant. As such the level of inflation can be a major driver too as well as other metrics which impact on the decisions of the Fed.