Stocks rally for 2nd day as July PPI declines

Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung breaks down how stocks are moving on Thursday.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: --lows. We've got our very own Brian Cheung. Our new--

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey, Akiko.

AKIKO FUJITA: --markets reporter today--

BRIAN CHEUNG: I'm still here.

AKIKO FUJITA: --Brian. Yes--

BRIAN CHEUNG: I'm still here.

AKIKO FUJITA: --Brian's filling in from 3:00 to 5:00, but he is standing by here with a look at the markets. And Brian yesterday, it was all risk on.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, and that's why you've seen the NASDAQ enter a bull market, of course, in a bear market. But bouncing back 20% from the lows. Today, it's up about 0.75%. If you take a look at a two-month basis, again, it's been up 14%.

So what's behind the tech-heavy rally? Well, we have to look at the individual stocks. And when we take a look at a heat map of the NASDAQ components, you could see on an intraday basis, again, we're seeing those typical big tech companies on the rise-- Amazon, Apple, Google.

But again, let's take a look at a two-month basis. You have seen the rip higher. Amazon up 30%. Tesla up 26%. Apple up 24%. And what's been really interesting throughout all of this is that we have to remember it's the NASDAQ that's really getting the gain here, not necessarily the same extent in the overall S&P 500 or in the Dow components.

Let's take a look at the Dow, for example. On a two-month basis, you see some other stocks that haven't been doing as comparably well. Interesting to watch financials, for example, essentially unchanged over that period of time. JPMorgan Chase only up about 0.6% over that period of time on a year-to-date basis. The financial stocks down, look at this, 24%.

But overall, the overall markets when you take a look, for example, at the S&P 500, we are looking at a 4,200 level. This is, by the way, what Julian Emanuel over at Evercore says is a maximum point of confusion because, of course, inflation, looking pretty good compared to that report yesterday but still high. And by the way, one last point here, the VIX below 20. Historically, that means people have less fear than they've had previously, Akiko.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, we'll take that, at least for today. Brian, appreciate that.