Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Ticks Up 0.28%
US stocks closed higher Wednesday as the S&P 500 rose 0.28%, led by tech gains, while the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.05% and crude crossed $101.
- The S&P 500 rose 0.28% to close at 7743.98, while the Russell 2000 led major indexes with a 0.41% advance.
- WTI crude oil advanced 2.04% to settle at $101.94, bringing its year-to-date gain to 77.53%.
- F5 plummeted 20.43% on 6.07 times its normal volume, while Vertiv jumped 16.48%.
Indexes Finish Higher Across the Board
Major US benchmarks gained ground on Wednesday, with the Russell 2000 leading percentage advances by adding 0.41% to 2830.51. The S&P 500 rose 21.38 points, or 0.28%, to end at 7743.98, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.27% to 26549.85. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 97.53 points, or 0.19%, to close at 52475.10. Meanwhile, the Cboe Volatility Index fell 3.48% to 16.91, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose 5 basis points to 5.05%.
Tech and Energy Lead Mixed Sector Performance
Sector results were split across the board, with Information Technology advancing the most by 0.80%, followed by Financials up 0.45% and Energy up 0.35%. Health Care also gained 0.30%, while Materials added 0.15%. On the downside, Utilities suffered the deepest drop, falling 0.84%, alongside declines in Real Estate of 0.73% and Communication Services of 0.42%.
Market Breadth Shows Modest Tilt Toward Decliners
Across the S&P Composite 1500, decliners outpaced gainers with 807 stocks falling compared to 690 advancing. Exactly 50.0% of stocks traded above their 50-day moving average, while 52.0% remained above their 200-day moving average. New 52-week highs edged out new lows at 43 to 40, featuring fresh peaks in large-cap healthcare names such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Amgen, and Gilead Sciences.
Sharp Single-Stock Movers and Active Trading
Vertiv topped the gainers list with a 16.48% jump, while Schrödinger advanced 15.53% and Hayward Holdings climbed 13.51%. To the downside, F5 slid 20.43% on heavy volume of 6.07 times its normal level, followed by Landstar System falling 17.76% and Enphase Energy dropping 16.03%. Among most-active stocks by dollar volume, Micron Technology rose 5.86%, whereas Nvidia slipped 1.17% and Meta Platforms shed 1.24%.
Earnings Lineup for the Next Session
Investors will face a heavy slate of corporate earnings on Thursday, October 29. Before the market open, reports are expected from Eli Lilly, Mastercard, Merck, Caterpillar, and Linde. After the closing bell, results are scheduled from Amazon, Intel, and Gilead Sciences.
Written with AI (Google Gemini) from the closing data in the tables on this page; every figure in the text was checked against that data before publishing. Prices are end-of-day. Not investment advice.