After a week of turmoil, stocks are near record territory again | CNN Business (2024)

US stocks finished mixed on Wednesday but the Nasdaq Composite hit another all-time high, exceeding Tuesday’s record close. The index finished up 0.1%.

The other two major equity indexes ended the session modestly lower: The Dow closed down 0.2%, or 71 points, and the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%.

Neither economic data nor more comments from Federal Reserve officials caused big swings in the market. Investors will now look ahead to key inflation measures due Thursday and Friday.

Bitcoin fell below $30,000 for the first time since January this week. But while the price drop might present a buying opportunity for some, other remain skeptical.

One of the skeptics: Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, who previously told CNN Business that “bitcoin is not an asset class.”

“If you want to buy, it should probably be in a separate account, not as part of your regular asset allocation,” he added.

Investing in companies with higher standards for ESG – environmental, social and governance investing– is all the rage. And Japan has a new fund focused on just that.

The MPower Partners’ new fund, launched by Kathy Matsui, Yumiko Murakami and Miwa Seki, is targeting a size of $150 million to invest in the growth of late-stage startups in Japan, as well as earlier-stage startups overseas.

The ‘S’ metric in ESGs has historically been more challenging to measure. But the pandemic has pushed social campaigns and initiatives to the forefront, Matsui said, changing the traditional dynamics.

Investment platform Acorns is looking to go public through a special purpose acquisition company, of SPAC. The company is looking at a valuation of $2.2 billion.

“We encourage people to [invest safely] and focus on the long term,” said the company’s CEO Noah Kerner in conversation with CNN’s Alison Kosik on the CNN Business digital live show Markets Now. That means not worrying about competition like Robinhood or the frenzy around meme stocks.

Acorns, which specializes in micro-investing and robo-investing, is approaching $10 billion saved and invested and wants to get another $10 billion in the book. Similarly, the company wants to grow to 10 million paying subscribers.

Stocks are getting closer to record highs again, and the Nasdaq Composite is on track for a new all-time high today. In other words: investors have reason to be optimistic.

“We’re in the second half of a 20-year bull market,” said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets on the CNN Business’ digital show Markets Now.

“I think investors need to focus less on macro and more on fundamentals,” he said.

But what about inflation? Belski isn’t worried about that just yet. The US stock market is still a great place for investors to be.

That said, the market is going to see some transition – from a momentum-driven market into a more earnings-driven market as the economy recovers.

For now, Belski says, technology, communications services and discretionary stocks are the way to go, “because that’s where we spend our money,” Belski said.

Shares of Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC), the two massive government-sponsored enterprises that help make the housing market run smoothly, both plunged nearly 35% Wednesday.

The huge drops come after the US Supreme Court ruled that a president can remove the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie.

Fannie and Freddie (more formally known as the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) buy mortgages from lenders and either hold them on their portfolios or bundle them into securities.

The FHFA was created in 2008 to oversee Fannie and Freddie, which nearly collapsed during the Global Financial Crisis and needed to be bailed out by the federal government.

President Biden has clashed with FHFA director Mark Calabria, who was appointed by President Trump, over the future of Fannie and Freddie. Biden may now have the legal green light to oust him.

“The President must be able to remove not just officers who disobey his commands but also those he finds ‘negligent and inefficient,’” said Justice Samuel Alito, writing the majority opinion.

Shareholders of the two firms had sued the FHFA and Treasury Department, arguing that they were entitled to billions of dollars in quarterly dividend payments to investors that were eliminated in 2012 and paid instead to the government.

But the Supreme Court said in its ruling Wednesday that “there is no reason to regard any of the actions taken by the FHFA…as void.”

Wall Street is mixed at midday, with the Dow moderately lower. The index is down 0.1%, or 18 points.

The S&P 500 is up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 0.2%.

“US stocks are stabilizing as investors are clearly in wait-and-see mode over the current wave of inflationary pressures,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.

Stocks have bounced back after tanking last week when the Federal Reserve changed its rate hike projections. It now forecasts an interest rate hike in 2023, earlier than previous projections.

While that means a policy change is on the horizon, rates won’t go up anytime soon, and that’s good for stocks.

“Policymakers might announce tapering at the end of the summer, with tapering starting in January, which means rate hikes won’t happen until 2023,” Moya said. “Expectationsfor infrastructure spending are high, so stocks appear to have a short-term safetynet in place.”

A 'Help Wanted' sign is posted in front of a restaurant in Los Angeles, California on May 28, 2021.

As the economy continues to reopen, joblessness across the nation is edging down, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Wednesday.

In May, 21 states and the District of Columbia registered a decrease in their unemployment rates. Nationwide, joblessness stood at 5.8% for the month; 27 states were below that.

Unemployment was highest in Hawaii at 8.1%, followed by New Mexico at 8% and California at 7.9%.

New Hampshire has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 2.5%, followed by Nebraska and Vermont at 2.6%.

People commute through Grand Central Terminal train station on May 12, 2021 in New York City.

The US economy is inching back to normal. But the recovery remains uneven and some states are lagging behind in the race to get back to pre-pandemic strength — especially New York.

Although several states’ economies have already fully recovered — andare even outpacing— their pre-Covid levels of economic activity, New York is by far the worst-performing state, according to theBack-to-Normal Indexcreated by CNN Business and Moody’s Analytics.

The index shows that the US economy as a whole was 93% back to normal as of June 18. But New York was only at 83%, leaving it with the furthest to go to get back into pre-Covid shape.

New York isn’t the only state below the 90% mark, though it is at the bottom of the list.

Read the full story here.

Fore! Electronic Arts (EA) is getting back into golf in a big way (even though the video game giant no longer has ties with links legend Tiger Woods): It will buy Playdemic, the developer of the popular Golf Clash game, from CNN parent company AT&T/WarnerMedia for $1.4 billion in cash.

Golf Clash lets people play against each other on mobile devices, with more than 80 million downloads for Apple/iOS (AAPL), Android and Facebook (FB).

EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the deal is “the next step building on our strategy to expand our sports portfolio and accelerate our growth in mobile to reach more players around the world.”

EA is known for its Madden NFL, FIFA and NHL sports games. It’s also set to release a new PGA Tour game in 2022. (But not with Woods, who’s now working with EA rival Take-Two (TTWO).)

For AT&T (T), the deal means its WarnerMedia division can focus more on its own content. Warner Bros. Games president David Haddad said the sale is “part of our overall strategy to build games based on Warner Bros. storied franchises.”

The acquisition comes as AT&T plans to spin off WarnerMedia into a new standalone company that will be merged with Discovery Communications (DISCA). That $43 billion deal is expected to close in mid-2022 and the combined entity will be renamed Warner Bros. Discovery.

US stocks were ever so slightly higher at the start of Wednesday’s session.

The economic calendar is light, showing that the US trade deficit widened to $195.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, less than economists had predicted. Markit PMIs for June and new home sales data for May are due after the opening bell.

America’s trade deficit widened by $20.7 billion, or 11.8%, in the first three months of the year, less than economists had predicted.

The deficit stood at $195.7 billion at the end of March — 3.6% of the nation’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity. That’s less than the roughly $207 billion analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had predicted.

Both exports and imports rose across nearly all categories, with the biggest jumps in industrial supplies and materials, such as petroleum.

Warren Buffetthas resigned from his trustee position at theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the 90-year-old investor announced Wednesday.

In a statement, Buffett didn’t specify why he’s leaving the foundation, but noted he has already resigned from all corporate boards other than Berkshire Hathaway’s. Buffett added that the foundation’s new CEO, Mark Suzman, is an “outstanding” selection and has his “full support.”

“My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals,” Buffett wrote.

Read more here.

US stock futures were flat after rising near record territory Tuesday. Stocks and bonds settled down after plunging last week when the Fed said it would raise rates sooner than expected.

Here’s where things stand as of 6:00 am ET:

The Nasdaq closed at an all all-time high Tuesday.

Microsoft (MSFT) has officially entered the most elite of clubs: corporations with a market value exceeding$2 trillion.

The tech giant is only the second publicly traded American company, behindApple(AAPL), to reach such a valuation. Oil companySaudi Aramco, which went public in 2019, has also previously passed that mark, though its market cap on Tuesday was $1.88 trillion.

Microsoft’smarket capitalization topped $2 trillion during trading on Tuesday, and closed just $300 million shy of that mark. Its stock on Tuesday climbed 1.1% to $265.51.

Read more here.

Bitcoin returned above the $30,000 mark on Wednesday, highlighting theextreme volatilitythat has plagued cryptocurrencies in recent months.

The digital currency hasjumped 5.4%over the last 24 hours, reaching$34,368per coin, according to CoinDesk.

That’s a U-turn from Tuesday, which sawbitcoin(XBT)plunge below $30,000for the first time since late January.

The cryptocurrency has lost almost half its value since it hit an all-time high in April.

Read more here.

Home prices in the US continued to climb in May,risingat the fastest pace on record and reaching new highs. But thosehigh prices and continued low inventory are squeezing would-bebuyers out of the market.

The median existing home price in May was $350,300, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors, up 24% from last May when the median price was $283,500. That’s the highest price on record and marks 111 straight months of year-over-year price gains.

For the fourth month in a row, existing home sales – which include sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – decreased on a monthly basis, the report showed.

Read more here.