The major averages were mixed at midday as Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified before the House Financial Services Committee. Powell's written testimony, released yesterday, reiterated that the economy has picked up from its depressed Q2 level, but added that "both employment and overall economic activity, however, remain well below their pre-pandemic levels, and the path ahead continues to be highly uncertain." The averages all moved into positive ground in afternoon trading with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way and closing the day as the best performing index.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., existing home sales rose 2.4% to a 6.0M unit rate in August, which was better than analysts expected. The Richmond Fed manufacturing index rose 3 points to a two-year high of 21 in September, beating forecasts.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a series of new coronavirus restrictions for England. Johnson has urged people to work from home if they can, pubs and restaurants will now close at 10 pm, and a plan to allow spectators at live sporting events was called off.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Tesla (TSLA) closed 5.6% lower ahead of the company's highly anticipated "Battery Day" event taking place later today. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter last night that what the company will announce at its Battery Day unveiling will affect long-term production - especially Semi, Cybertruck, and Roadster production - but will not reach "serious high-volume production" until 2022.
Shares of Carvana (CVNA) jumped 30.5% after the online car retailer announced that it expects to achieve company records in performance across several metrics in Q3, including retail units sold, total revenue, total gross profit per unit and EBITDA margin.
Meanwhile, auto repair retailer AutoZone (AZO) reported better than expected revenue and profit for its fiscal fourth quarter. However, its shares slid 1.6% following the quarterly update.
In other car news, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford (F) has reached a tentative deal with its 5,400 unionized employees in Canada in a settlement that secures a nearly $1.5B investment in two plants and a commitment to build electric cars in suburban Toronto.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that negotiators in the TikTok-Oracle (ORCL) deal aim to finalize talks with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States by week's end. Some outstanding details still need to be worked out, including whether Oracle can make changes to ByteDance code for TikTok security, according to CNN. The news comes after The Verge reported that Oracle told reporters yesterday that TikTok owner ByteDance will have no ownership stake in the new TikTok Global.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was GameStop (GME), which rose 20.7% after RC Ventures disclosed an increased stake of 9.98% and said it is holding talks with management and several board members. Also higher was Fulgent Genetics (FLGT), which gained 7.1% after it was named to join the S&P 600.
Among the notable losers was Kingsoft Cloud (KC), which declined 12.5% after it filed to sell 17.68M American depositary shares.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 140.48, or 0.52%, to 27,288.18, the Nasdaq gained 184.84, or 1.71%, to 10,963.64, and the S&P 500 advanced 34.51, or 1.05%, to 3,315.57.
Tesla
-25.41 (-5.66%)
Carvana
+52.96 (+30.47%)
AutoZone
-7.97 (-0.68%)
Ford
-0.1 (-1.46%)
Oracle
-0.22 (-0.36%)
GameStop
+1.81 (+20.69%)
Fulgent Genetics
+2.66 (+7.08%)
Kingsoft Cloud
-4.48 (-12.18%)