People walk past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street lower after European governments extended anti-coronavirus lockdowns, clouding the outlook for economic recovery. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
People walk past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street lower after European governments extended anti-coronavirus lockdowns, clouding the outlook for economic recovery. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
A man walks past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street lower after European governments extended anti-coronavirus lockdowns, clouding the outlook for economic recovery. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
The Fearless Girl statue stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District, Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Stocks are off to a solid start on Wall Street as banks made up some of the ground they lost a day earlier. Industrial companies were also strong early Wednesday, March 24 helping to push the benchmark S&P 500 index up 0.5% in the first few minutes of trading. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Stocks were moving mostly higher on Wednesday, helped by a recovery of bank and industrial stocks. Bond yields were steady after rising earlier this week.
Investors continue to turn their attention to Washington where Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are speaking about the government's stimulus efforts to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Both will speak in front of the Senate later on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.3% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3%.
Bank stocks, which took a beating on Tuesday, were among the best performers. Shares of banks have been volatile the last couple of weeks as investors try to gauge the impact of higher interest rates on the U.S. economy. Higher interest rates can slow economic momentum, but they can also be good for banks because they allow banks to charge more for loans.
Bank of America was up 1.5%, JPMorgan Chase & Co. was up 2% and Citigroup was up 2%.
GameStop sank nearly 20% after reporting results that missed Wall Street’s forecasts, though the stock is still up more than eightfold since the beginning of the year after it became a social media darling for a swarm of online investors. The company took no questions from investors on its quarterly conference call late Tuesday
The pandemic remains a dominant topic for investors. Stocks fell on Tuesday after Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and the Netherlands extended lockdowns and imposed new travel and business curbs in response to spikes in infection. That followed similar moves earlier by Italy and France.
The bond market was relatively quiet for a change. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was little changed at 1.64%. It had been as high as 1.74% last week, which caused the stock market to go into selling mode.
Bond yields have risen this year as traders have been watching the potential for inflation pressures to pick up after struggling economies were flooded with credit and government spending. That has depressed U.S. bond prices, prompting some to shift money out of stocks.
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7 Stocks That Still Have Upside For Investors to BuyIt can be fun to invest in some speculative stocks. But it should go without saying that those stocks shouldn’t make up the bulk of your portfolio. In fact, it’s important to find a few good stocks that make up the base of your portfolio. These are momentum stocks that are in a strong uptrend.
One way to find such stocks is to look at the most active stocks (or volume leaders). Shares of these companies are among the most traded or have the highest dollar volume of shares traded in a given trading day.
Any stock may crack this list from time to time (for example, when there’s new news about the company). However, stocks tend to find their way on this list consistently that bear watching. That’s because this list indicates that there is pressure among investors to buy or sell the stock. And that makes an investor’s decision very simple.
And that’s the reason we created this special presentation. The stocks on this list are among the most actively traded stocks on the market today. They also share a similar quality. They are coming off strong years in 2020 and seem to be showing some consolidation for another leg up.
View the "7 Stocks That Still Have Upside For Investors to Buy".
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