Stock Market Today: Live Updates

On Wednesday, the Russell 2000 rose nearly 2%, its best day in more than a month. Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors thinks small-cap benchmarks will rise further.

Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, told CNBC’s “Last Call” that small-cap stocks in relative value terms have returned to 1999 levels, which was “the starting point of a 12-year period of outperformance.” .

“I think this means the Fed is suspending its dovishness and CEOs are becoming more confident, which means M&A, IPOs, and people looking at other sectors,” he said. “I believe Russell rates could rise by 50% this year.” Indeed, the Fed left interest rates on hold at the end of its March meeting on Wednesday, maintaining its forecast for three rate cuts in 2024, sending major stock averages to new closing records.

He added that the Russell 2000 index could be boosted this year by a variety of factors, noting that profitable companies in the small-cap index trade at about 11 times P/E, and that “the price-to-book ratio story… “We are also talking about a huge P/E ratio.” The benchmark also has a heavy weight in biotech, and financial companies in the Russell 2000 are likely to benefit if the Fed starts cutting interest rates, he said.

“I think the Russell 2000…represents the best thing that can happen when the Fed starts cutting rates,” Lee said.

–Darla Mercado

Institutional investors and individual investors aren’t the only ones pushing up stock prices. Savita Subramanian and other equity and quantitative strategists at Bank of America said in a note Tuesday that last week was also big for corporate stock buybacks.

BofA noted that repurchase trends are “reaching multi-year highs,” with repurchase trends carried out by the bank’s own corporate clients reaching the third-highest weekly level in data since 2010. He pointed out that there was.

The pace of share buybacks has also remained “above typical seasonal levels for this time of year” for the second week in a row, strategists said. So far in 2024, buybacks have totaled 0.34% of the S&P 500’s total market capitalization, compared to a high of 0.29% during the same period in 2023.

According to BofA, stock buybacks as a percentage of total market value over the past 52 weeks were the highest since August 2020, during the summer when the coronavirus pandemic first hit.

— Scott Schnipper

With more than half of the trading week in the rearview mirror, the three major indexes are on an upward trajectory.

The Nasdaq Composite led the week’s gainers, rising 2.5%. The Dow and S&P 500 each rose about 2.1%.

— Alex Harring

Big tech rallies could be on “borrowed time,” according to UBS.

Strategist Jonathan Golub said the forays into Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia may not last. Valuation isn’t the issue in this case, he said, but it’s becoming a question of when, not if, these huge gains in the “big six” stocks will end.

“With Big Six earnings momentum rapidly decelerating and overall market trends improving, we see continued outperformance for these stocks, and the narrower market returns they imply. have become difficult,” Golub wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. He said, “Currently, upward revisions are supporting companies, but the future slowdown in profits cannot be ignored.”

Golub’s call comes amid a strong year for the sector, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index up more than 9%.

— Alex Harring

Below are some stocks that have made notable moves in after-hours trading.

• Micron Technology — Shares soared 13% after the semiconductor company beat expectations on sales and gave strong guidance on initiatives. The company also posted earnings per share, even though analysts had expected a loss.
• 5 Down — The value retailer fell 13% after weaker fourth-quarter profits and guidance for the current quarter and full year.

See the complete list here.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures were trading slightly higher after 6pm ET.

Dow futures rose 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

— Alex Harring