Stocks traded on the higher side Wednesday as trade optimism entered the market again after testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Despite the Wall Street Journal reporting that the U.S. and China are slow to signing a trade deal due to disagreements over agricultural purchase terms, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones ended in positive territory. The Dow Jones was led to a record closing high after a more than 7% increase to shares of Disney's (NYSE: DIS) stock after the entertainment company announced that it added more than 10 million users to its streaming platform on Tuesday.
Here's how the U.S. markets settled Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.07% or +2.2 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): +0.33% or +92.1 points
Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ): -0.05% or -3.99 points
Powell Wednesday appeared before Congress's Joint Economic Committee to testify on the U.S.'s domestic economy. Powell stated that the "baseline outlook remains favorable" for the U.S. economy as it enters its eleventh year of expansion. Powell saw the current stance of monetary policy as "likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with [the Federal Reserve's] outlook of moderate economic growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near [the Fed's] symmetric 2 percent objective." Despite President Donald Trump's comments yesterday, Powell believes that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy is in a good place.
In U.S. Economic News, consumer prices rose slightly more than expected in October. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data for Wednesday reports that the headline consumer price index for October rose 0.4% from September's reading. Increases in energy prices contributed to most of October's gain.
In Stock Sector News, sectors continue to see mixed gains in current markets. Those who saw gains for the day include Utilities +1.47%, Real Estate +1.07%, Consumer Staples +0.86%, Communication Services +0.42%, Information Technology +0.25%, and Health Care +0.11%. The other half that were on the decline today included Financials -0.57%, Energy -0.51%, Materials -0.48%, Industrials -0.40%, and Consumer Discretionary -0.38%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, oil prices posted mixed gains today, with West Texas Intermediate slipping around -0.10%. Brent Crude on the other hand soared over +1%, pricing barrels over $62.60. Gold started its midweek comeback, with prices increasing around +0.07% to price the metal close to $1,464.40 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar lost a small amount of the gains it made this week, with the DXY Index reading a minimal loss of -0.01%.