Wall Street ends up being helped by Nike, FedEx, and consumer confidence

Dec 21 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s three major stock indexes closed higher on Wednesday, posting their biggest daily gains so far in December, supported by optimistic Nike. (NKE.N) and FedEx (FDX.N) Quarterly earnings, as well as improving consumer confidence and easing inflation expectations from investors.

Shares of Nike Inc rose 12% after it beat earnings forecasts for the second quarter due to strong holiday demand from North American shoppers, while FedEx closed up 3.4% and shares in cruise operator Carnival Corp. (CCL.N) It jumped 4.7% after posting a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.

fedex corp (FDX.N)which sparked a market sell-off in September after withdrawing financial forecasts, provided financial guidance and announced $1 billion in cost-cutting plans.

Also, US consumer confidence rose to an eight-month high in December as inflation eased and the labor market remained strong while 12-month inflation expectations fell to 6.7%, the lowest since September 2021.

“We’re seeing a broad rally. It’s been helped by upbeat comments from companies and improved consumer confidence,” said Angelo Korkavas, investment analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis, referring to Nike and FedEx.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) The S&P 500 rose 526.74 points, or 1.6%, to 33,376.48. (.SPX) The Nasdaq Composite rose 56.82 points, or 1.49%, to 3,878.44. (nineteenth) It added 162.26 points, or 1.54%, to 10,709.37 points.

energy companies (.SPNY) The biggest gainers were among S&P’s 11 major industrial sectors, adding 1.89% as oil futures rose.

The smaller sectoral gainers were consumer staples (.SPLRCS)which ended up 0.8%.

However, Wednesday’s data also showed that U.S. existing home sales fell 7.7% to a 2-1/2 year low in November, as rising mortgage rates hit the housing market. But the data may feed investors’ hopes that the Federal Reserve may ease its tightening policy.

“At the macro level you have economic weakness, but at the micro level you have companies that are resilient and present a positive outlook from an earnings perspective,” said Brian Price, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Massachusetts. It will be positive.”

Fears of a recession after the US central bank raised interest rates for extended periods weighed on stocks and these fears put the Standard & Poor’s Index on track for its biggest annual decline since 2008 and a decline for the month of December.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty and we will likely see quite a bit of volatility early in the year where we could be in a mild recessionary environment,” Korkavas of Edward Jones said, but he thinks the market has already priced in a weaker economy. .

“We still have some headwinds ahead, but we probably don’t have to price in a recession twice. So far what we’ve seen this year has really been priced in a mild recession.”

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N) The company closed up 4.3% after the cinema chain operator said it had suspended talks to acquire certain assets of bankrupt Cineworld Group. (CINE.L).

Advances outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of 3.43 to 1; On the Nasdaq, the ratio of 2.10 to 1 favored the advanced traders.

S&P 500 records 5 new highs in 52 weeks and 3 new lows; The Nasdaq index posted 69 new highs and 268 new lows.

9.81 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared to an average of 11.16 billion shares over the last 20 sessions.

(Covering) By Sinad Karu in New York, Shubham Batra, Amrutha Khandekar, Ankika Biswas, and Yohan M. Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shonak Dasgupta, Magu Samuel and Aurora Ellis

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