The S&P 500's Best Day Since March

By Nicholas Jasinski |  Thursday, October 14 Surge. Stocks had a good day today, opening well in the green and rising through the session to close at the highs of the day. The S&P 500 jumped 1.7%, for its largest one-day gain since the first week of March. All 11 sectors in the index closed at least 1% higher today.  A relatively volatile stretch for the market continues, but after today's gains, record highs are just a inch away again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.6% today to close just 2% below its mid-August all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.7% today, its biggest one-day gain since May. The tech-heavy index is now up almost 2.5% in just two days. The catalysts for today's rally included some well-received economic data, namely the lowest weekly initial jobless claims print since the pandemic began and cooler-than-expected producer inflation figures. A modest retreat in bond yields in recent sessions has also helped growth stocks in particular. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is down about 0.09 percentage points over the last three trading days, to 1.52%. Its spike above 1.6% from 1.3% just a few weeks ago had spooked many stock investors. This morning also brought a parade of earnings from big banks, with nearly all delivering solid results. That's a positive for investor confidence in the first inning of third-quarter earnings season, and contributed to today's broader gains. Bank of America stock jumped 4.5% after the firm topped sales and earnings estimates and CEO Brian Moynihan gave a bullish assessment of the U.S. economy. Bank of America’s advisory and global wealth and investment management businesses posted record or near-record profits. Barron's Carleton English covered the results in detail here. Morgan Stanley likewise saw a big jump in sales and profits at its advisory and wealth management units. Mergers and acquisitions activity was robust in the third quarter, and the bank's related revenues soared more than 250% from the prior year. Overall investment banking revenue was up 67%. Morgan Stanley shares added 2.5% today. Karishma Vanjani has the full report here. Citigroup's and Wells Fargo's results today were less impressive to investors. Citi's stock wavered between positive and negative territory today, before eventually settling up 0.8%. Wells Fargo's gave up a brief gain to finish down 1.6%. Sabrina Escobar has the details on Citi's third quarter here and Carleton covered Wells Fargo's here. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index of U.S. bank stocks closed up 1.3% today. Bank earnings continue tomorrow morning with results from Goldman Sachs.

 

DJIA:  +1.56% to 34,912.56 S&P 500: +1.71% to 4,438.26 Nasdaq: +1.73% to 14,823.43 The Hot Stock: Walgreens Boots Alliance +7.4% The Biggest Loser: U.S. Bancorp -2.3% Best Sector: Materials +2.4% Worst Sector: Consumer Discretionary +1.1%