The market saw its first green of the week on Wednesday, as a stabilization in oil prices helped end a two-day losing skid for the indices.
The NASDAQ was once again the best performer. It rose 2.81% (or about 232 points) to 8495.38 as tech returned to its winning ways after taking a break on Tuesday.
And that result came with no help from Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which slipped nearly 2.9% despite announcing nearly 15.8 million new paid subscribers in the first quarter.
The S&P jumped 2.29% to 2799.31 and the Dow advanced 1.99% (or around 456 points) to 23,475.82.
There’s still a lot of ground to recover from the losses on Monday and Tuesday, which totaled approximately 5% due to the May oil contracts going negative.
The June contracts were plunging too, but they bounced back by double digits on Wednesday. The move helped to calm skittish investors and allowed the market to get back on track, even though this space will continue to be under pressure until the economy opens up again.
Stocks are coming off back-to-back weekly gains for the first time since the coronavirus took hold. It’s going to take a lot to push it to three, especially with weekly jobless claims scheduled for tomorrow.
The past four weeks have seen 22 million workers file for unemployment. It will definitely be a high number once again, but the market may have a sigh of relief if it tapers off a bit.
On the other hand, Thursday might also see the House approve the $484 billion relief package that passed the Senate earlier this week. President Trump is also on board the deal, which is designed to help small businesses and hospitals.
And despite all the challenges these days, we’ve been getting some decent earnings releases, which led to strong performances today from the likes of Snap (SNAP, +36.74%), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG, +12.15%) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN +4.81%).
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Home Run Investor: This portfolio has been keeping its distance from the biotech space of late, but the nearly 45% surge in Novavax (NVAX) over the past three weeks has convinced Brian to get a little more exposure. Therefore, he bought Cue Biopharma (CUE) on Wednesday, which is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) immunotherapy play that treats cancer and other autoimmune diseases. This company has beaten earnings for three straight quarters, while sales growth is expected in the triple digits for this year and next. The editor is most impressed that shares have recovered to levels from early March, and believes that profitability could come sooner than expected if topline growth remains strong. Read the complete commentary for a lot more on this new addition.
Surprise Trader: For eight straight quarters now, Harmonic (HLIT) has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Last time, it surprised by 50%! And now it has an Earnings ESP of 30% for the quarter coming after the bell on Monday, April 27. HLIT enables media companies and service providers to deliver ultra-high-quality broadcast and OTT video services to consumers globally. Dave added the stock on Wednesday with a 12.5% allocation. And given the rough start to this week, the editor also decided to sell UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) and cash in that 5% profit in less than two weeks. Read the full write-up for more on today’s moves. Meanwhile, this portfolio had the second best performer of the day as Netgear (NTGR) jumped 11.6%.
Counterstrike: It's going to be a busy week for this portfolio. On Wednesday, Jeremy decided to clear some ground before future purchases and cash in some profits along the way. The editor doesn’t want to hold onto eHealth (EHTH) through its earnings report, so he sold the stock today for a 13.9% return in a little over a month. Meanwhile, the portfolio short-covered Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) for a 12.1% gain in less than 2 weeks and got out of the financials by selling ProShares Ultrashort Financials (SKF) for 9.2%. The portfolio also sold ProShares Ultrapro Short QQQ (SQQQ) and short-covered Chipotle (CMG). Be ready for some buys in the days ahead.
Technology Innovators: This portfolio had three of the top five positions of the day as tech continues to be a market leader. The winners include ACM Research (ACMR), which jumped 11.3% on Wednesday to become the best performer of the day among all ZU names. The other two noteworthy advances came from Enhpase Energy (ENPH, +7.7%) and Agilysys (AGYS, +7%).
All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto
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