Stocks ended Wednesday's session mixed, with the S&P 500 and Dow climbing slightly higher following another batch of positive corporate earnings, while the Nasdaq slightly declined as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares were pressured by the upcoming departure of CEO Jeff Bezos.
Investors are still monitoring stimulus negotiations taking place between Present Joe Biden and Republican senators, with the lawmakers attempting to counter Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal for a smaller plan.
Meanwhile, the ADP employment report for January showed an unexpected rebound of 174,000 private payrolls for the month, with growth returning even as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on hiring. Consensus estimates had called for only a 70,000 increase, according to Bloomberg.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.10% or +3.84 points to 3,830.15
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.12% or +35.53 points to 30,723.01
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.02% or -2.23 points to 13,610.54
For Stocks, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares rose over 7% following better-than-expected quarterly earnings from the tech giant, which the report showing the company's ad spending recovering. Vaxart (NASDAQ: VXRT) shares plummeted over 57% after the biotech revealed that its experiment coroanvirsu vaccine taken orally did not produce neutralizing antibodies in an early-stage clinical trial.
For Sector Performance, sectors on the S&P 500 ended mixed as the broader market looked for direction. Top gainers were Energy (NYSE: XLE), rising over 4%, and Communication Services (NYSE: XLC), up over 2%, while the lowest decliners were Consumer Discretionary (NYSE: XLY) and Health Care (NYSE: XLV), both falling over 0.70%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) mostly held its previous session gains on Wednesday as sentiment remained positive towards U.S. economic recovery. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, remained relatively flat at 91.16. Silver (NYSE: SLV) rebounded from its more than 8% drop on Tuesday as investors bet that industrial demand will increase in the near-term. Spot silver rose 1% to $26.87 per ounce. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices continued to be pressured by the strengthening dollar and bets that additional Congressional stimulus will be less than previously anticipated. Spot gold declined slightly by 0.14% to $1,834.86 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 0.2% higher at $1,836.00 per ounce. Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday, climbing bear their highest levels in about a year, as OPEC+ maintained its supply cut agreement and U.S. crude stockpile data showed declines. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) increased by 1.74% to $58.46 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) settled 1.7% higher at $55.69 each.
For Thursday, market participants will turn their attention to the Labor Department's latest weekly unemployment report, as well as quarterly corporate earnings from companies like T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS), Unilever (NYSE: UL) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD).