Stocks continued to rise on Wednesday after news that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to a near $2 billion deal with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) to purchase up to 600 million doses of the pair's potential coronavirus vaccine upon its approval. The positive vaccine news offset rising U.S.-China tensions that escalated on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department ordered the closure of China's consulate in Houston, Texas, citing privacy concerns. China announced that it will retaliate against the closure, adding to the brewing tensions between the two nations since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, U.S. existing home sales jumped 20.7% in June over May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (N.A.R.). Although the reading was below consensus estimates, the report was a the largest month on month gain ever recorded.
"The sales recovery is strong, as buyers were eager to purchase homes and properties...This revitalization looks to be sustainable for many months ahead as long as mortgage rates remain low and job gains continue," N.A.R.'s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
Here's how the market settled for the mid-week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.58% or +18.75 points to 3,276.05
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.62% or +165.47 points to 27,005.87
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.24% of +25.76 points to 10,706.13
For Major Stock News, homebuilding stocks like NVR (NYSE: NVR) and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) jumped during Wednesday's session due to positive existing homes data. Banks were pressured on potential trade war tensions: Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) and Macy's (NYSE: M) share fell after UBS (NYSE: UBS) downgraded the retail stocks from Neutral to Sell, citing that retail should no longer rely on third-party partners as consumer buying habits become more digital.
For Sector Performance, most industries continued to gain throughout Wednesday's trading session, with only Energy -1.34% and Financials -0.09% falling behind. The major of sectors that saw performance increases on Wednesday include: Utilities +1.53%, Real Estate +1.25%, Materials +1.12%, Health Care +0.85%, Information Technology +0.83%, Industrials +0.82%, Consumer Staples +0.77%, Consumer Discretionary +0.33% and Communication Services +0.04%.
For Commodities and Currency, crude oil prices were slightly pressured on Wednesday due to tensions between U.S. and China and a rise in U.S. crude inventories. However, it only affected oil prices slightly, with West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) slipping to $44.29 per barrel and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) dropping to $44.29. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices benefitted from the refueled market uncertainty surrounding the two world superpowers, with spot gold increasing to 1.3% to $1,865.61 per ounce and futures settling up 1.2% to $1,865.10 per ounce. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) also rose 0.2%, but still trades close to a four-month low.
For Thursday, investors will be looking at another batch of corporate earnings, including American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), as well as the labor department's weekly unemployment claims report.