Stock Market Today: Live Updates

A record rally in gold puts gold mining stocks on track for their best week of the year.

the Van Eck Gold Miners Fund (GDX) It rose about 2.5% in early trading, and is now up more than 7% for the week. This would be the fund's best stretch since the week of December 1, when it rose 8.5%.

The three major indexes opened Wednesday's session higher, marking a turnaround from the previous two bearish days.

the Dao It rose about 0.5% shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. the Standard & Poor's 500 And Nasdaq Composite It added 0.7% and 1%, respectively.

-Alex Haring

These are some of the companies making the biggest moves before the bell:

Foot locker – Shares fell about 9.7% after the sneaker retailer reported a loss in the holiday quarter and gave weak guidance for the current year. As it pursues its financial goals, Foot Locker's CFO said the company expects the profitability target, which it announced during its March 2023 investor day, to be delayed by two years.Crowd Strike– Shares jumped more than 23% after the cybersecurity company's fourth-quarter earnings beat estimates. The company's revenue of $845 million was also higher than the estimated $839 million. Furthermore, management reiterated the 2030 target of $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.Palantir Technologies – Shares rose 7.5% on news that Palantir received a $178.4 million contract from the US Army to develop ten AI-powered ground stations as part of a project called Titian, or Tactical Intelligence Targeting the Access Node.

For the full list, read here.

– Piya Singh

In prepared remarks to be delivered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the central bank is not yet ready to start cutting interest rates.

“When considering any adjustments to the interest rate target range, we will carefully evaluate incoming data, evolving expectations and the balance of risks,” Powell said. “The Committee does not anticipate that it would be appropriate to lower the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards 2 per cent.”

To be sure, he also said that interest rate policy “is likely to be at its peak in this tightening cycle. If the economy develops broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin unwinding policy restrictions at some point this year.”

-Fred Imbert

The private sector saw job growth in February, but at a slower rate than economists expected, according to data from payroll processing company ADP released Wednesday.

Companies added 140,000 jobs for the month, an improvement from the upwardly revised figure of 111,000 jobs in January. But the increase in February was just below expectations of 150,000 economists polled by Dow Jones.

-Alex Haring, Jeff Cox

UBS explored the similarities between today's bull market and the bull market of the 1990s, and found some notable similarities and differences.

Strategist Bhanu Baweja noted that today's stock market rally, driven by narrow technology leadership, resembles the second phase of the stock market in the 1990s. In the first phase, stocks rose steadily from 1995 to 1998; In the second stage, stocks rose between the years 1998 to 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst.

However, Baweja said any comparisons to the dot-com bubble were unwarranted, saying today's rally was based on a stronger fundamental business.

“[There’s] There is no bubble ready to pop. “There are notable differences between then and now in margins generated, earnings, free cash flow, in signals from options markets, and in IPO/M&A activity,” Baweja wrote on Wednesday. “Although we have sector-specific euphoria today, it is based on delivering shareholder returns. Then we had sector-specific euphoria based on hype.”

However, the strategist noted that “[today’s] “The macroeconomy does not support a sustainable uptrend,” he said, citing weak productivity growth and lackluster real disposable income growth, factors that will need to “start looking for a continuation of the uptrend.”

– Sarah Maine

Palantir It jumped more than 6% in pre-market trading after announcing an arm contract worth more than $170 million.

The counter-terrorism software provider said it had won a contract from the Military Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground. Through the agreement, Palantir will develop 10 prototypes of the TITAN ground station system, which represents tactical intelligence targeting the access node.

Palantir has significantly outperformed the market this year, rising more than 38% since the start of 2024.

-Alex Haring

Foot locker It fell more than 5% before the bell on Wednesday after providing weak full-year earnings guidance.

The footwear retailer told investors to expect between $1.50 and $1.70 in earnings per share for the full year, excluding items. This disappointed the expectations of analysts polled by LSEG, who expected $1.86.

Foot Locker's weaker outlook overshadowed a better-than-expected fourth quarter. The New York-based company earned $38 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $2.38 billion, beating analysts' expectations of 32 cents and $2.28 billion.

Shares are up more than 10% so far in 2024.

-Alex Haring

Eight Australian companies have pledged to invest about A$5.2 billion ($3.4 billion) in Malaysia, according to a government minister.

“We are looking at both the digital economy and the green economy,” the country's Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, told CNBC's “Squawk Box Asia”, noting that data center operator AirTrunk, which is backed by Macquarie Asset Management, was… Among the companies that have shown interest in the country.

This comes a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that major Australian companies have shown interest in investing about RM24.5 billion ($5.1 billion) in the country, during an official visit to Melbourne.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

The Australian economy grew by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter in the final quarter of 2023, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

The reading was driven by government spending and private business investment. It is also slightly lower than the Reuters poll estimate of a rise of 0.3 percent.

“Growth was flat in December, but has slowed over each quarter in 2023,” said Catherine Keenan, head of national accounts at the ABS.

“Government spending and private business investment were the main drivers of GDP growth in the quarter.”

Real GDP in the 12 months to December was 1.5%, slightly above the Reuters poll's forecast of a 1.4% increase.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

South Korea's inflation rate rose for the first time in three months to 3.1%, higher than 2.8% in January and also more than the 2.9% expected in a Reuters poll.

The country's core inflation rate, which does not include food and energy prices, was 2.5%.

South Korea's central bank was the first major central bank to stop raising interest rates in early 2023, keeping its key interest rate at 3.5%.

– Lim Hui Ji

Pulled by technology stocks, the three major stock indices ended Tuesday's trading session lower.

the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor's 500 And Nasdaq Composite All recorded their second negative sessions in a row and their worst daily performance since February 13.

Nvidia The stock was the most positive for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while… Microsoft It led losses for both indices.

On the other side, JP Morgan It was the most positive stock within the Dow Jones on Tuesday. shares Sales force The stock led 30% lower during today's trading session.

-Lisa Kailai Hahn, Christopher Hayes

These are the most moving stocks in extended trading:

Nordstrom-Despite beating fourth-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, shares fell nearly 10% after the department store chain provided disappointing full-year 2024 guidance.Crowd Strike– Cybersecurity stock rose 19% after fourth-quarter earnings beat estimates.Box– Cloud storage stocks jumped 8% after posting fourth-quarter revenue that matched analyst expectations, according to LSEG.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

-Lisa Kailai Han