US stocks edge higher ahead of holiday, crude tumbles
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks resumed their uphill climb led by interest rate sensitive megacaps on Wednesday, while crude prices slid as investors digested economic data and the postponement of the OPEC+ meeting that was to take place this Sunday.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were green ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, with interest rate sensitive momentum stocks putting the tech-laden Nasdaq in the lead.
After Tuesday's closing bell, chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported revenue well above Wall Street expectations after the market close, but shares were off due to the company's downbeat China sales outlook.
A spate of economic data, including jobless claims, durable goods, and consumer sentiment, suggested that the economy is softening after about 20 months of policy tightening from the Federal Reserve, but remains resilient enough to potentially avoid recession.
«People feel good going into the Thanksgiving holiday,» said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia. «Consumer sentiment was up quite a bit, there’s an indication that consumer spending remains fairly strong going into the holiday shopping season.»
Wall Street's rally was modest but broad-based, with energy stocks the clear outlier, tumbling in tandem with crude prices after the OPEC+ group of oil producing nations postponed their scheduled Sunday meeting, raising questions about crude production cuts.
«The delay of the meeting indicates differences of opinion regarding production cuts going forward,» Tuz added. «If everyone was on board there’d be no need to postpone the meeting.»
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 150.12 points, or 0.43%, to 35,238.41, the S&P 500 gained 20.47 points,
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