Dow wavers ahead of remarks by Fed’s Powell with S&P 500 winning streak on line

How are stock trading

• The S&P 500
  SPX
  gained 3.5 points, or 0.1%, to 4,386.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average
  DJIA
  was flat at 34,112.

• The Nasdaq Composite
  COMP
  gained 26 points, or 0.2%, to 13,674.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose for the eighth straight session while the Nasdaq Composite rose for the ninth. For both indexes, this marked the longest winning streak since November 2021, Dow Jones Market Data show.

What’s driving markets

Coming on the heels of a three consecutive monthly losses, U.S. stocks’ sudden turnaround since the start of November may be heading for another milestone on Thursday should the S&P 500 notch a ninth-straight day in the green.

According to FactSet data, the last time the S&P 500 recorded such a long winning streak since Nov. 5, 2004. What’s more, if the Nasdaq rises for what would be the 10th session, it would mark the tech-heavy gauge’s longest winning streak since an 11-day run that ended Nov. 8, 2021.

In One Chart: Rare stock-market event? Here’s how many times the S&P 500 has seen a 9-day winning streak in the last 95 years.

Over the past two weeks, falling Treasury yields, a weakening U.S. dollar and lower oil prices have helped to catapult stocks higher, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

But stocks were vacillating between gains and losses early Thursday after opening higher.

“We entered November on the our back foot and clearly the biggest headwinds for stocks were rising Treasury rates, a stronger dollar and rising energy prices,” Hogan said during an interview with MarketWatch.

“All three of those have now reversed.”

Outside of the major indexes, the Russell 2000
RUT,
a gauge of small-cap stocks traded in the U.S., was up 0.2% at 1,717. The index also outperformed last week as U.S. stocks saw their biggest advance of the year.

The big market-moving news on Thursday’s calendar may be another round of commentary from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Traders are eager to hear what Powell might have to say about this rapid pullback in Treasury yields since the Fed’s November policy meeting last week.

“Bottom line is that stocks and bond yields are feeding on the Fed appearing to back off higher for longer,” said Michael Lebowitz, a portfolio manager at RIA Advisors.

“The Fed has made it clear that higher long term rates and lower stock prices are doing their job for them. If the Fed backs off their narrative the tone will change.”

Powell will speak at an International Monetary Fund panel on global monetary policy challenges, due to start at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Ahead of the bell, traders digested the latest report on the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits. It showed that initial jobless claims fell by 3,000 to 217,000 last week, suggesting that layoffs aren’t on the rise, even as the pace of job creation slowed in October, according to data released last week.

Stock investors were also keeping a close eye on the Treasury market. Concerns that a large slug of government debt might meet a lukewarm reception from the market have eased following a mixed but nevertheless well-received $40 billion sale of 10-year paper on Wednesday.

The Treasury will look to sell $24 billion of 30-year bonds at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.

The S&P 500 has gained 6.45% during its eight-day winning streak after the 10-year Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
plunged from a 16-year peak around 5% to below 4.5% midweek on signs of a cooling U.S. jobs market, according to FactSet data.

In other Fedspeak, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said during an MNI webcast on the economic and policy outlook that whether or not more policy tightening is needed remains to be seen.

Companies in focus

• Walt Disney Co.’s
  DIS,
  +7.61%
  stock jumped after the media company reported a spike in streaming customers and better-than-expected earnings.

• AstraZeneca PLC
  AZN,
  +1.59%
  shares rose after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker upped its earnings forecast for 2023 following a surge in sales of cancer medicines.

• Lyft Inc.
  LYFT,
  -0.70%
  on Wednesday reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s estimates and forecast fourth-quarter sales growth that was better than expected. But shares of the ride-hailing platform fell.

• AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.’s
  AMC,
  -11.40%
  strong third-quarter results lifted U.S. movie theater stocks Thursday. The movie theater chain and meme stock darling swung to profit and reported positive net income for the second straight quarter after market close Wednesday.