The S&P and Nasdaq had a low-key morning after yesterday’s excitement.
Tuesday was a major upheaval for the stock market, as for the first time ever, the Nasdaq Composite closed above 15,000. 2021 has proven to be a winning streak for the Nasdaq, with this latest closing marking the 29th record closing for 2021 so far. So far this year, the Nasdaq’s value has risen a solid 16%. However, not every day can bring incredible gains, as this morning, the indexes showed little new movement.
This morning, both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq remained flat, with any gains or losses negligible. The only noticeable change among the indexes was a 55 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. While this is mildly disappointing after yesterday’s gains, there are definitely still irons in the fire.
Positive news about the COVID-19 pandemic has the numbers inching in the right direction. Numbers show that the worst of the delta surge may be behind us as positive cases show a minor decline in the worst-hit states like Florida and Texas.
“We realize equity markets have been choppy and the wide variance of perspective means investors do not have an easy consensus. But our central case remains that we are shifting further into full risk-on, with an ‘everything rallies’ into” year-end, wrote Fundstrat’s Tom Lee to clients. “The cadence of incoming data has improved in the past few days, the most notable being the apexing of COVID-19 cases in a number of states.”
S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite open flat a day after closing at records https://t.co/SC1ePfzoCT
— CNBC (@CNBC) August 25, 2021
Analysts and investors are feeling optimistic about the future of their holdings. Wells Fargo Securities head of equity strategy Christopher Harvey increased his year-end target to 4,825 yesterday, a 7.5% perk-up over the day’s closing.
“Over the last 31 years, there have been nine instances where the S&P 500 had a price return of 10%+ in the first eight months of the year; over the next four months, the index averaged another +8.4%. None of these instances produced a negative return during those last four months,” he wrote to clients.
