Small-cap surge continues, bonds bid higher
The S&P 500 extended its winning streak to six sessions, rising 0.3% while the Nasdaq 100 inched up 0.1%. The Russell 2000 closed just shy of a record, gaining 1.5% on the day. The small-cap gauge has advanced more than 1% in each of the past three sessions for the first time since mid-July.
All in all, 386 constituents in the S&P 500 advanced. Breadth has returned to the US stock market: in total, the number of advancing issues in the past three sessions is 1,205, the highest this year.
Nine of 11 S&P sector ETFs were positive, with real estate, consumer discretionary, and materials all up more than 1%. Energy stocks, at the bottom of the S&P sector ETF leaderboard, slumped along with oil prices. Tech was barely underwater.
Bath & Body Works soared 16.5% on a solid earnings report that has investors hoping that it’s turning a corner.
Macy’s slumped after reporting so-so preliminary third-quarter earnings and delaying the release of its full report after saying a single employee hid over $100 million in delivery expenses over a three-year period.
Nvidia fell 4.2% amid reports that Amazon was making progress on muscling in on some of its dominance in AI chips.
Super Micro Computer continued the torrid run that’s seen the stock more than double since November 14, and was the best-performing S&P 500 constituent.
US Treasuries were well bid as investors cheered President-elect Trump’s nomination of Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, expecting him to help keep fiscal and trade policy on a more orthodox path. Ten-year Treasury yields fell 13 basis points, the most since early August.
