Stock market news live updates: Stocks pare losses, Nasdaq turns positive

Updated Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 2:08 PM 9 min read

That Nasdaq Composite turned positive and added to Monday’s gains, hitting a fresh record high and briefly breaking above 10,000. The S&P 500, however, held lower and dipped back into slightly negative territory for the year to date. The energy, financials and industrials sectors – which had led the index higher over the past several sessions – underperformed on Tuesday. Declines in Raytheon Technologies and Boeing anchored the Dow.

A day earlier, Monday’s equity advance came the same day that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the U.S. economy entered a recession after peaking in February, bringing what had been the longest expansion since World War II to an end. Still, the backwards-looking call did little to knock markets off their steady trend higher.

“We’ve been telling people to ignore the economic data,” Brent Schutte, Northwestern Mutual chief investment strategist, told Yahoo Finance’s The Ticker on Monday. “The market is a forward-looking mechanism – it’s looking forward to a better future, it’s reflecting the fact that we’re opening large swaths of the U.S. economy without significant spikes in cases.”

“We do suspect that in the future, while the returns certainly aren’t going to be what they are today or what they have been over the past few months, there still is value left in different parts of the market for investors,” Schutte said. He said he still sees value in cyclical stocks that will benefit most from the reopening, along with some domestic small- and mid-cap companies and some international stocks.

Others pointed to the massive stimulus efforts by the Federal Reserve as a key driver of the S&P 500’s striking 44.5% rally since its March 23 closing low.

“The stock market is being driven by liquidity and hopes for a vaccine; both likely will persist,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a note.

“Rapid money supply growth is not enough alone to boost stocks, but earnings likely will rebound. It’s hard to be bearish, though renewed lockdowns and vaccine disappointments are real risks,” he added.

The Fed on Monday expanded the scope of its Main Street Lending Program first announced in mid-March by lowering the minimum loan size, raising the max loan limit and extending the loan terms to five years to incentivize participation in the program. The Federal Open Market Committee kicks off the first day of its two-day meeting Tuesday, and will issue its latest monetary policy decision Wednesday.

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4:06 p.m. ET: Nasdaq sets fresh closing high after briefly breaking above 10,000, while S&P 500 and Dow decline

Here were the main moves in markets as of 4:06 p.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -25.21 (-0.78%) to 3,207.18
Dow (^DJI): -300.14 (-1.09%) to 27,272.30
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +29.01 (+0.29%) to 9,953.75
Crude (CL=F): +$0.59 (+1.54%) to $38.78 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): +$14.50 (+0.85%) to $1,719.60 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -5.5 bps to yield 0.8290%

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11:50 a.m. ET: Vroom opens at $40.25, jumping 83% above IPO price

Online car rental company Vroom (VRM) opened for trading on the Nasdaq at $40.25 per share, leaping above its IPO price of $22. The listing marked the latest stock to pop on its first day of trading, amid a reopening of the IPO market following coronavirus-related disruptions.

The company priced its IPO in an upsized offering Monday, raising $468 million.

Vroom is unprofitable but growing on the top line, posting a net loss of $41 million on sales of $376 million for the three months ending March 31.

That was a wider net loss than the $27 million in the same period last year, but revenue was also up 60%. Vroom also said in its prospectus that it’s expecting the Covid-19 pandemic will encourage customers to buy cars especially using online platforms to maintain social distancing.

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11:22 a.m. ET: Nasdaq turns slightly positive as big tech companies rise

Each of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Netflix were up more than 2% intraday Tuesday. The rally in big tech names helped bring the Nasdaq back into positive territory during Tuesday’s session, while the S&P 500 and Dow held lower but pared earlier losses.

Here were the main moves in markets as of 11:22 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -20.68 points (-0.64%) to 3,211.71
Dow (^DJI): -191.34 points (-0.69%) to 27,381.1
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +20.19 points (+0.2%) to 9,944.26
Crude (CL=F): -$0.05 (-0.13%) to $38.14 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): +19.20 (+1.13%) to $1,724.30 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -6 bps to yield 0.824%

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11:08 a.m. ET: Boeing’s stock falls after company reports more aircraft cancellations and fewer new orders in May

Shares of Boeing (BA) fell and were on track to end a six-session winning streak after the company reported net cancellations for the month of May, extending a run of customer cancellations outpacing orders this year. The company reported 9 gross jet orders along with 4 commercial jet deliveries in May. Cancellations included 14 nixed orders for 737 Max jets.

The company also did not deliver any of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in May, for the first time that Boeing recorded no Dreamliner deliveries since 2013.

Boeing’s year to date net orders dropped to -602 in May, from -516 in April.

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10:02 a.m. ET: Wholesale inventories revised down slightly for April

U.S. wholesale inventories rose by 0.3% in April, according to the Commerce Department’s final print on April inventories, for a tick down from the 0.4% previously reported. Wholesalers’ stocks dropped by 1.1% in April, with the depletion of these a sign that inventories could drag on GDP in the second quarter.

Wholesale stocks excluding autos, which factors into GDP calculations, increased by 0.6% in April.

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9:40 a.m. ET: Macy’s jumps more than 7% after reporting 450 stores reopened in early June

Macy’s (M) said in preliminary first-quarter results Tuesday that it had reopened about 450 stores as of June 1, “with the majority opened in their full format,” according to a statement. The stock surged more than 7% shortly after market open following the announcement.

“Our reopened stores are performing better than anticipated,” it added. “We are seeing strong sell-through of seasonal merchandise, and anticipate that we will exit the second quarter in clean inventory position.”

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9:32 a.m. ET: Stocks open lower, extending overnight losses

Here were the main moves in markets as of 9:32 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -36.11 points (-1.12%) to 3,196.28
Dow (^DJI): -359.87 points (-1.31%) to 27,212.57
Nasdaq (^IXIC): -54.18 points (-0.55%) to 9,870.56
Crude (CL=F): -$0.17 (-0.45%) to $38.02 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): +18.10 (+1.06%) to $1,723.20 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -6.7 bps to yield 0.817%

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7:34 a.m. ET: Tiffany posts 1Q loss, but highlights rebounding sales in China and reaffirms LVMH deal

Tiffany (TIF) on Tuesday reported a wider than expected loss per share and steeper revenue drop for the three months ended April 30, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the jewelry-maker’s results.

The company’s first-quarter adjusted loss per share was 53 cents, versus the 27 cents expected. Net sales were $555.5 million, a decline of 45% over last year and below expectations for $611.9 million.

Comparable same-store sales in constant currency declined across all major geographic regions, with the Americas posting the largest drop at 44%. However, the company said it saw a major recovery in China, the country first hit by the virus, starting in April, with retail sales up 30% over the prior year that month.

Tiffany also reaffirmed it would be moving ahead to a deal to be acquired by luxury company LVMH. CEO Alessandro Boglioli said in Tuesday’s earnings statement, “I am excited we will be taking that journey with LVMH by our side.”

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