Stocks were mixed Wednesday as the broader market rally took a pause. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed over 90 points.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY ): -0.38% or -16.33 points to 4,267.52
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA ): +0.27% or +91.74 points to 33,665.02
Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ ): -1.29% or -171.52 points to 13,104.90
One of the top drivers of market moves on Monday was data on the U.S. trade deficit for April, which continued to increase to reach $74.6 billion. Meanwhile, exports fell by $9.2 billion and imports rose by $4.8 billion.
Coinbase (COIN ) also remained in-focus on Wednesday following charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday. Shares of the cryptocurrency exchange fell 12% after the regulator alleged it was operating as an unregistered exchange and broker.
Ark Invest's Cathie Wood added Coinbase to multiple exchange-traded funds amid the sell-off. Wood added nearly 330,000 shares to her flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK ), roughly 54,000 shares to the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW ) and about 35,700 shares to Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF ) -- all these purchases combined are more than $21.6 million.
On the analyst front, JPMorgan Chase's Doug Anmuth raised the firm's price target on Netflix (NFLX ) on Wednesday, believing that the streaming giant's password sharing policy could increase revenue growth.
Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya reiterated the firm's Buy rating on Broadcom (AVGO ) on Wednesday following a keynote address from CEO Hock Tan. Arya says Broadcom continues to be a "best-in-class" buying opportunity as AI helps boost the company's earnings.
"Management presented a compelling and unique vision of focus on premium compute/networking products, laserfocus on operational efficiency, consistent GM expansion, and best-in-class FCF generation/return (FCF margins of 50%+ the highest in semiconductor industry," Arya wrote in a Wednesday note.
In single-stock news, Stitch Fix (SFIX ) rose nearly 28% on Wednesday after reporting a smaller-than-expected loss in its recent earnings report. The company also said it is exploring exiting the U.K. market in the 2024 fiscal year. Dave & Buster's (PLAY ) shares popped 18% after the company posted better-than-expected revenues in the first quarter.
Affirm (AFRM ) shares rose after the buy now, pay later company was added as a checkout option on Amazon (AMZN ). The company allows shoppers to buy products in installment loans.
Looking ahead, markets will remain cautious ahead of May's Consumer Price Index reading due out next Tuesday.
