Yahoo Finance Stock Market News for Sep 13, 2023
Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday, dragged down by tech stocks. Oil prices hit an almost 10-month high. Investors traded cautiously, keeping a keen eye on Wednesday’s inflation numbers. All three major stock indexes ended in the red.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 0.1% or 17.73 points to close at 34,645.99. Sixteen components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory, while 14 ended in negative.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 144.28 points or 1% to 13,773.62.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.6%, or 25.56 points, to end at 4,461.90. Seven of the 11 broad sectors of the benchmark index closed in the red. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) slid 1.8%, 1% and 0.9%, respectively, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) rose 2.4%.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) increased 3.1% to 14.23. A total of 9.4 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 9.9 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the S&P 500 by a 1.4-to-1 ratio.
Oracle Experiences Worst Drop in 21 Years
Stocks of Oracle Corporation ORCL plunged 13.5% on Tuesday after reporting first-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings numbers late on Monday. The revenue and earnings were below market expectations, though the stock has been doing great in 2023, rising close to 55% year to date before this single-day drop. The computer giant has also given a guidance of 5% to 7% growth for the next quarter, which is disappointing considering the growth it has seen this year and what analysts are expecting. As a result, its shares posted their worst day since 2002 and became the heaviest drag on the S&P 500.
It is widely expected that the rise in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications could boost Oracle's cloud infrastructure business because the progress it has been making in networking technology is appropriately suited to take on AI workloads. Much of the gains that the technology sector has made in 2023 have been about the positivity surrounding the breakthroughs made in the field of AI, and despite the session’s sell-off, it is unlikely to change in the near future. In the meantime, Oracle weighed down on the market and investors fled from the technology sector.
Consequently, shares of Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL declined 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively. Each carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Oil Prices Surge to Almost a 10-Month High
Market participants are currently expecting that the Fed will not raise the interest rate level in its September meeting and are hoping that the inflation numbers will show moderate inflation for the central bank to do that. However, with oil prices on a northward curve in recent sessions, it is not unreasonable to envisage inflation ticking up for August.
Throughout the last week, the market has been feeling the heat of rising energy prices born out of Saudi and Russia’s decision to not increase production till the end of 2023. On Tuesday, these prices hit their highest since November 2022 after OPEC forecasted high demand for energy in major economies and a tight supply schedule.
Brent crude rose $1.42, or 1.6%, to settle at $92.06/barrel, while WTI crude rose $1.55, or 1.8%, to settle at $88.84. Both benchmarks remained technically overbought for an eighth straight day, considering they had closed flat in the session before.
No economic data was released on Tuesday.
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