Dow Jones futures fell slightly overnight, along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally eased slightly on Wednesday, amid rising Treasury yields and a stronger dollar. Meta launched its rival on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
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The main indexes fell slightly. It was another quiet session on the major indices, with Fed minutes having little impact. Stock META, parent company of Google Alphabet (Google T Salesforce.com (CRM) compensated for a generally low magnitude.
Metaplatforms (META) launched the Instagram rival on Twitter on Wednesday night, joining Facebook and other social sites with more than 3 billion daily users. Instagram Threads app debuts amid ongoing issues at Twitter, which is now owned by You’re here (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. Meta shares rose in extended trading.
GOOGL stock and Salesforce issued buy signals on Wednesday. In the meantime, MercadoLibre (MELI) is on the cusp of early entry.
The META stock is on the IBD ranking. Google stock is on SwingTrader. Google was Wednesday’s IBD stock of the day.
The video embedded in this article discussed Wednesday’s market action and analyzed Google, monday.com (MNDY) and Flowserve (FSL).
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures were 0.2% below fair value. S&P 500 futures fell 0.15% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%.
At 8:15 a.m. ET Thursday, investors will receive the ADP jobs report for June. At 8:30 a.m., the Department of Labor will release weekly jobless claims, with the June services ISM index due at 10 a.m. ET. On Friday morning, the Labor Department will release its June jobs report.
Remember that overnight action on futures contracts on Dow Jones and elsewhere does not necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular trading session.
Join the experts at IBD as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live
What are Meta Instagram Feeds?
Meta’s new text-based Threads is billed as a place where you can “follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and like-minded others,” according to an App Store description. The Threads app shares many features with Twitter. It allows users to “like” a post, reply to it, or repost it. Search capabilities are limited.
Meta Platforms launched its text-based app Threads at 7:00 p.m. PT on Wednesday, up 12 hours from its scheduled 7:00 a.m. PT debut on Thursday.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has used Instagram to encroach on rival social sites in the past. Instagram Stories, launched in 2016, takes on Snapchat, owned by Snap (SNAP). Instagram Reels, unveiled in 2020, is an effort to take on TikTok.
Other potential Twitter rivals, such as Mastodon and Bluesky, have gained users but have yet to become major threats. The Threads app, launched with a number of celebrities and other high-profile users, may be able to quickly attract mass users.
It will join an ecosystem with more than three billion daily users of at least one of Meta’s apps – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Threads would allow users to use their Instagram username to follow their current Instagram accounts on Threads.
Since Musk took over Twitter for $44 billion last year, the social site has alienated advertisers and many users over a variety of issues. Last week, Twitter imposed limits on the number of tweets users can read. This “rate limit”, which is supposedly aimed at cracking down on unauthorized data scraping and bots, affects unverified users more.
Meta Stock
META stock jumped 2.9% to 294.37, hitting a 17-month high. It is well extended from any possible point of purchase. Meta platforms were up 1% in after-hours trading.
Stock Market Rally Wednesday
The stock market rally saw some slight declines on major indices, with small caps losing a bit more. The Fed released minutes from the June 13-14 meeting, but they offered few surprises. While suspending rate hikes at this meeting, Fed officials preferred further tightening. It’s something that Fed Chief Jerome Powell and other policymakers have been pointing out ever since.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% in Wednesday’s stock trading. The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 1.3%, ending a six-game winning streak.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 2.9% to $71.79 a barrel. Saudi Arabia has indicated that it will do whatever it takes to support prices. It comes after it announced on Monday that it would extend a voluntary production cut for another month, until August.
The 10-year Treasury yield jumped 9 basis points to 3.94%, a four-month high.
Amid rising US Treasury yields and weak economic data in Europe and Asia, the US Dollar edged higher, just around key levels.
AND F
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) fell 0.8%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) closed slightly higher, with CRM stock a major component. ETF VanEck Vectors Semiconductor (SMH) fell 1.9%.
Reflecting more speculative historical stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) fell 0.35% and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) fell 0.65%. TSLA stock is the #1 position among Ark Invest ETFs.
The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) fell 1.8%. The US Global Jets ETF (JETS) climbed 0.3%. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) fell almost 1%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) slid 0.55% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) closed just below breakeven.
The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI) fell 0.5%.
The Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) lost 0.2%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) lost 1.3%.
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StockGoogle
Google stock rose 1.5% to 121.75, bouncing off the 10-week moving average and breaking a downtrend in a short consolidation. Shares also crossed the 21-day line. Investors could use the 21-day line, or the June 30 high at 121.08, as a specific entry. GOOGL stock is on track to have a new base after this week.
Salesforce Inventory
CRM stock climbed 1% to 213.82. Just like Google, Salesforce broke above its 10-week line and broke a short downtrend. The stock has a buy point of 225 from a flat base, amid several weeks of tight weekly closes, according to MarketSmith analysis.
MercadoFree Stock
MELI stock jumped 4.5% to 1,247.36. Volume was above average and picked up as MercadoLibre stock rose. Shares of the Latin American e-commerce and payments giant decisively crossed its 21-day moving average for the first time in a month and broke a short downtrend. But MELI stock stopped just short of the 50-day line. A clear move on the 50 days would offer early entry. The MercadoLibre action is working on a buy point of 1,365.64.
Keep in mind that MELI stock has suffered a number of above-average volume declines over the past few weeks.
Market rally analysis
The major indices fell slightly on Wednesday after slender gains on Monday. Meta platforms, Salesforce, Google stocks and some other megacaps mitigated larger losses elsewhere.
Decliners drastically outpaced advances on Wednesday, but many losers showed little damage. Generac (GNRC) and Aehr test systems (AEHR) were exceptions, tumbling 8% and 11% in high volume.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) fell 0.4%, falling from its best levels in more than four months.
The First Trust Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted Index ETF (QQEW) fell 0.3% against a stable Nasdaq 100.
Steel mills, base metal miners and casinos had a tough day. Some software leaders lost ground, but many hit intraday lows. Medical product companies had another tough session.
Travel parts generally performed well, or at least held up well. Industrialists too.
After the market bounced back last week, stocks are reluctant to pre-pull back. A longer break or a slight dip over several days or weeks could be constructive for the stock market rally. The Nasdaq composite closed 7% above its 50-day moving average, with the Nasdaq 100 7.9% above that key level. These are not extreme levels, but they are not far from it.
Time the Market with IBD’s ETF Market Strategy
What to do now
The market rally will do what it will do. But investors may want to be cautious about adding a lot of short-term exposure, given the high odds of sideways action or another pullback.
In any case, there weren’t too many stocks that gave buy signals on Wednesday, apart from Google and CRM stocks.
Many stocks are hovering around buy zones in various sectors, although many retreated on Wednesday.
Work on those watchlists.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in tune with market direction and top stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
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