Moderna Doubles, Gold Rallies To $4,500 As Dollar Sinks: Stock Market Today

U.S. equities clawed back Tuesday’s tech-led slump by midday Wednesday as the Treasury’s decision to double its long-dated debt buybacks pulled benchmark yields off 20-month highs and knocked the dollar to its weakest level since late May.

The reflation impulse ripped through hard assets.

• Gold — tracked by th SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) — jumped toward $4,500 an ounce.
• Silver rallied 4.3% to $66.06 and
• Platinum gained 4.4% to $1,809.50, both at two-month highs.

Bond Market Intervention Is Session’s Organizing Event

The Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations covering securities maturing in 10 to 30 years, lifting the maximum to $4 billion through Nov. 4, after 30-year yields recently touched their highest since 2007.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 5 basis points to 4.66% after testing a 20-month high of 4.75% on Tuesday. The 30-year yield dropped 8 basis points to 5.20% and the 20-year fell 9 basis points to 5.19% ahead of a $16 billion 20-year auction.

The 2-year was little changed at 4.19%, steepening the curve’s front end against a flattening long end.

The dollar index slid to 99, the lowest since late May. The euro rose 0.8% to $1.1664 and the yen strengthened 0.8% against the greenback.

That was enough to spark a rotation rather than a straight rally: money moved out of the crowded AI hardware trade and into rate-sensitive, dollar-sensitive and defensive assets.

The S&P 500 added 0.6% to 7,735, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 53,563. The Nasdaq 100 was unchanged, while the small-cap Russell 2000 outperformed, up 0.8% to 3,043 as lower long-end yields lifted domestic cyclicals.

Crude extended a three-day advance despite a bearish inventory print. West Texas Intermediate rose 2.1% to $86.68 a barrel and Brent climbed 1.5% to $92.42, near three-week highs.

Attention now turns to the 2 p.m. ET release of the July FOMC minutes, which should quantify how divided the committee was when it held the fed funds rate at 3.75% last month with three dissents.

Wednesday’s Performance In Major US Indices

According to the Benzinga Pro platform:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) gained 0.6%.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.4%.
• The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) edged up 0.2%.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) rallied 0.8%.

Moderna Jumps on mRNA Breakthrough

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLV) led all 11 S&P 500 sectors with a 2.8% advance, its strength concentrated in a single stunning headline. 

Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) more than doubled, soaring 132.7% to $146.52, the stock’s best day ever, after the biotech company and Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK)  said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine intismeran autogene, combined with Keytruda, met both its primary endpoint of reducing melanoma recurrence and its secondary endpoint on distant metastasis in a Phase 3 trial of more than 1,100 post-surgical patients.

It is the first positive late-stage readout for an mRNA cancer vaccine, and the partners said regulatory discussions would begin within months.

Merck rose 10.7% to $149.69, the stock’s best day since March 2009.

 The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) and the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) each rose 1.9%, and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) added 1.3%.

Laggards Tell a Rotation Story

The Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLI) fell 0.5%, the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLU) lost 0.4% and the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) shed 0.4%.

At the industry level, the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) exploded 9.4% higher, extending its month-to-date gain to 31.3%. 

The iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) surged 4.7% and the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS:ITB) rose 3.6% on the yield retreat. 

Two names bucked the semiconductor tape. Marvell Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) rallied 9.7% to $236.89, and Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) outperformed the group after reporting adjusted earnings of $3.45 per share against a $3.31 estimate and issuing strong guidance.

Wednesday’s Stock Movers

Tempus AI Inc. (NASDAQ:TEM) jumped 21% to $59.73 after agreeing to acquire Personalis Inc. (NASDAQ:PSNL) for roughly $1.5 billion, largely in stock, at $16.25 per share, pushing Tempus into the roughly $20 billion minimal residual disease cancer-testing market.

The gold complex supplied the next tier of gainers. Coeur Mining Inc. (NYSE:CDE) climbed 14.2% and was matched almost tick-for-tick by peers Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), up 14.0%, Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM), up 8.5%, and Royal Gold Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD), up 7.9%.

The dollar’s slide did the same work for crypto proxies. Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) rose 14.2% to $105.64 alongside a Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) rally toward $66,000.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) rose 16.8% to $98.42 after fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.6 billion, up 6% and ahead of the $3.54 billion consensus, and adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share, double the year-ago figure.

The decliners were almost entirely an AI hardware story. Vicor Corp. (NASDAQ:VICR) was the worst Russell 1000 performer, down 9.4% to $219.59 as investors took profits on a 21% single-session rally in the prior session.

Keysight Technologies Inc. (NYSE:KEYS) extended its post-earnings slide.

TTM Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) fell 6.4% to $117.61 and MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MTSI) lost 6.1% to $274.89, both sliding on a continued de-risking across the AI supply chain.

Retail results were the session’s other soft spot. The TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE:TJX) reported second-quarter earnings of $1.22 per share against a $1.19 estimate, while Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) posted $4.11 per share. TJX, Target and Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE:LOW) traded between 4% and 1% lower after the prints.

Wednesday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers

Wednesday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers

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