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Stock Market News for Jun 26, 2020

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Wall Street closed higher on Thursday gaining some ground that it lost the previous day following the rollback of some of the regulations of the big banks by the FDIC. Improvement in economic data also bolstered market participants' confidence. All three major stock indexes ended in the green.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) surged 1.2% or 299.66 points to close at 25,745.60. Notably, 22 components of the 30-stock blue-chip index ended in the green while 8 closed in red. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended at 10,017, gaining 1.1% or 107.84 points due to strong performance by large-cap tech stocks.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 advanced 1.1% to end at 3,083.76. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE), the Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLF) and the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) appreciated 1.9%, 2.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Notably, all eleven sectors of the benchmark index closed in positive territory.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 4.8% to 32.22. A total of 11.38 billion shares were traded on Thursday, lower than the last 20-session average of 13.32 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.81-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 2.00-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.

Rollback of Regulations on Banks

The Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stated that they are planning to rollback some restrictions imposed on the banks by the Volcker rule. Per deregulations, banks will be permitted to more easily make large investments into venture capital and similar funds.

Moreover, banks will no longer be required to set aside cash for derivatives trades between different units of the same firm. This deregulation procedure will free up billions of dollars in bank's exchequer to be invested in the economy.

Consequently, shares of banking behemoths like The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS - Free Report) , JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM - Free Report) and Citigroup Inc. (C - Free Report) jumped 4.6%, 3.5% and 3.7%, respectively. All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Economic Data

The Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims came in at 1.48 million for the week ended Jun 20 compared with a upwardly revised figure of 1.54 million in the previous week. The consensus estimate was 1.307 million. However, continuing claims - which indicates the number of jobless people already received government benefits - declined 767,000 to 19.52 million for the week ended Jun 13.

In its final estimate, the Department of Commerce reported that the U.S. economy shrank 5% in the first-quarter 2020, marking the biggest quarterly decline since an 8.4% drop in fourth-quarter 2008.

The Department of Commerce reported that the durable goods orders for the month of May jumped 15.8% compared with a revised decline of 18.1% in April. The consensus estimate was for a gain of 11.9%.  Notably, May's data was the highest since July 2014. The core durable goods orders (excluding aircrafts and military hardware) gained 2.3% in May.

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