FX.co ★ U.S. Stocks Give Back Ground After Early Move To The Upside

Stocks, which showed an upward trend towards the start of Wednesday's session, had a dramatic shift later in the day, falling from initial highs. As a result, both the Dow and the S & P 500 slipped into the red.

While the Nasdaq is up by 24.59 points, rising by 0.2 percent to a total of 15,721.23 points, the Dow has declined by 119.17 points (or 0.3 percent) to 38,384.52. The S & P 500 fell by 8.59 points (or 0.2 percent) to 5,061.96.

Strong corporate earnings initially spurred a rally on Wall Street, this following a noticeable slump last week. One notable winner was Tesla whose shares rose by 11.3 percent despite posting weaker than expected results for the first quarter. This surge is credited to CEO Elon Musk's announcement of Tesla's plan to commence production of a more affordable model by 2025.

Likewise, Texas Instruments, after exceeding both top and bottom-line expectations for the first quarter, experienced a considerable boost in its stock. Visa, Boeing, and Mattel also enjoyed an uptick after posting quarterly returns that beat expectations.

However, buying interest began to wane early in the trading day possibly due to traders' anticipation of large tech company earnings scheduled to release in the coming days. IBM Corp and Facebook parent Meta Platforms, are among those due to post their results following today's trading close. Also, Google parent Alphabet, Intel, and Microsoft are set to report their results after Thursday's trading close.

On another note, the Commerce Department pointed to an unexpected surge in new orders for U.S.-made durable goods in March. This report stated a 2.6 percent rise in durable goods orders in March, following a 0.7 percent increase in February, revised downward from previously reported figures. Economists had forecasted a 2.3 percent increase, compared to the original report of a 1.3 percent increase in the preceding month. But when excluding transport equipment orders, the rise in durable goods orders was limited to 0.2 percent in March.

On the sector front, transportation stocks were among the hardest hit, pulling the Dow Jones Transportation Average down by 2.5 percent. Housing stocks also experienced a noticeable dip, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index posting a 1.4 percent loss. Similarly, pharmaceutical and retail stocks trended downward. On the flip side, semiconductor stocks, on the back of positive results from Texas Instruments, are performing solidly, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 1.6 percent.

On the global market, Asia-Pacific region stock markets showed mostly positive movement. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index surged by 2.4 percent and China's Shanghai Composite index grew by 0.8 percent. However, European markets weathered slight losses. The UK's FTSE 100 index declined by 0.1 percent while the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index fell by 0.2 and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Lastly, US bonds were under pressure after their previous gains, causing a 6.2 basis points increase in the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which inversely correlates with its price, booking it at 4.660 percent.