WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, with the major averages all moving to the upside after ending Tuesday's session narrowly mixed. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.
The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Dow jumped 507.85 points or 1.1 percent to 45,010.20, the Nasdaq climbed 127.33 points or 0.6 percent to 21,020.02 and the S&P 500 advanced 49.29 points or 0.8 percent to 6,358.91.
The strength on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump announced trade deals with Japan and the Philippines.
The 'largest ever' U.S. trade deal with Japan features a 15 percent tariff on Japanese exports and includes a commitment from Tokyo to invest $550 billion in the United States and open its markets for American vehicles, rice, and other agricultural goods.
Trump claimed the U.S. would receive 90 percent of profits from the agreement and that the pact could generate hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
According to Trump, the new trade pact with the Philippines would make the county an open market with zero tariffs on U.S. goods, but with Manila paying a 19 percent duty.
The announcement of these trade deals spurred expectations of further trade agreements as the August 1st deadline nears.
'News of a trade agreement between the US and Japan is fostering optimism among investors that further deals might be reached before punishing tariffs come into force,' says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
He added, 'The beleaguered Japanese car industry revved up on the news and, with talks ongoing to extend the cut-off on China's tariffs, it appears next month's deadline could become more of a speed bump than a cliff edge for the market.'
On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales in the U.S. pulled back by more than expected in the month of June.
NAR said existing home sales slumped by 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 3.93 million in June after jumping by 1.0 percent to a revised rate of 4.04 million in May.
Economists had expected existing home sales to fall by 0.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.01 million from the 4.03 million originally reported for the previous month.
Sector News
Oil service stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index spiking by 4.1 percent.
Substantial strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent surged by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Airline, pharmaceutical, networking and healthcare stocks also saw significant strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 3.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.6 percent.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index surged by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are giving back ground after moving higher over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 4.4 basis points at 4.380 percent.
Looking Ahead
Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to earnings news from Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and electric car maker Tesla (TSLA), which are among the companies due to report their quarterly results after the close of today's trading.
Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2025 AFX News
