Dow Jones futures rose modestly Wednesday morning, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures, as Treasury yields continued to decline. CrowdStrike, Intuit, Workday and NetApp headlined a busy night of earnings.
The stock market rally had another quiet session Tuesday. The major indexes rose slightly, as Treasury yields continued to slide. Crude oil futures rebounded.
Tesla moved above a key level heading into the Cybertruck delivery event Thursday night. Palantir Technologies rebounded from a key level, perhaps offering an aggressive entry. AMZN stock and Nvidia held buy points as Amazon.com announced a new AI chip and AI chatbot. All of these stocks rose slightly early Wednesday.
Amazon and Nvidia stock are on IBD Leaderboard. Nvidia, WDAY and CrowdStrike are on the IBD 50. CRWD stock is on the IBD Big Cap 20.
The video embedded in the article discussed Tuesday's market action and analyzed TSLA stock, Palantir and Marriott Worldwide.
In other news, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger died Tuesday at the age of 99. Munger had been Warren Buffett's longtime right-hand man. BRKB stock was little changed in late trading.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures rose 0.35% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.65%.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell several basis points to 4.29%.
Crude oil futures rose nearly 2%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Key Earnings
CRWD rose modestly early Wednesday after tilting lower Tuesday night. The cybersecurity play topped earnings views, with revenue and revenue guidance just edging past consensus. CrowdStrike stock rose 1.1% in Tuesday's session, hitting a 52-week high.
INTU stock was just above break-even after the tax software giant beat fiscal Q1 views but guided lower on Q2. Intuit stock edged up 0.68% to 565.07 on Tuesday, holding in range of a 550.12 double-bottom buy point.
WDAY stock rose sharply in extended action, setting up a possible entry Wednesday, as the business software giant eclipsed consensus and gave bullish guidance. Workday stock inched 0.6% higher to 237.33 on Tuesday, just below a 238.99 early entry from a short handle.
NTAP stock surged in overnight trade as the data storage giant beat fiscal Q2 forecasts and guided up on Q3 EPS. NetApp stock is set to blast out of a 79.63 handle buy point from a double-bottom base. Shares closed up 2 cents at 78.11.
Wednesday night, Salesforce.com and Pure Storage are on tap. CRM stock and PSTG rose slightly before the open, not far from possible entries, following the Workday and NetApp earnings.
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Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally closed with slim gains on the major indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% in Tuesday's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%.
The major indexes are all near their 52-week highs.
The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.5%, still below the 200-day line.
Leading stocks are acting well, though many are extended.
U.S. crude oil prices bounced 2.1% to $76.41 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell 5 basis points to 4.335%, the lowest since late September. The two-year Treasury yield, more closely tied to Fed policy, hit the lowest since July 17. Fed officials speaking Tuesday, including some policy hawks, sounded confident on inflation's downward trend. Markets, which had already priced out further Fed hikes, are increasingly pricing in rate cuts starting in May, if not sooner.
ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF rose 0.6%. Salesforce and Intuit are major components, with CrowdStrike, Workday and PLTR stock also members. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF slipped 0.6%, with Nvidia stock the No. 1 holding.
Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF popped 2.75% and ARK Genomics ETF advanced 0.7%. Tesla stock remains a major holding across Ark Invest's ETFs. Cathie Wood's Ark also owns some Palantir stock.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF inched up 0.1% and SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF fell 0.6%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF closed just above break-even. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund retreated 0.5%.
The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund dipped 0.2%. The Financial Select SPDR ETF lost a fraction.
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Tesla Stock
Tesla stock jumped 4.5% to 246.71 on Tuesday, moving back above the 50-day moving average and topping its Nov. 15 short-term high. Shares are working on a 278.98 double-bottom buy point, according to MarketSmith analysis. Investors could use a declining trendline as an early entry, currently around 252.
Shares rose more than 1% overnight.
The relative strength line has lagged since July, though it's improved over the past month. Also, earnings have been weak in 2023, with analysts expecting another decline in Q4.
The Tesla Cybertruck delivery event Thursday afternoon could be a big TSLA catalyst, up or down. There are many unanswered questions about the Cybertruck, including prices and actual specs.
On Tuesday, weekly China registration data pointed to Tesla sales continuing to pick up. The EV giant nudged China prices higher again, this time on the Model Y Long Range variant, but also offering notable insurance subsidies on the base Model 3 and Y, as well as promoting low-interest loans.
Palantir Stock
PLTR stock bounced 3.3% to 19.71, rebounding from near the 21-day line. Shares had cleared a 20.24 buy point on Nov. 17. But two days later Palantir stock reversed sharply lower, extending losses for a few more days.
Shares rose over 1% early Wednesday.
Investors could still use 20.24 as a legitimate buy point, but Tuesday's bounce offered a possible entry. Use Monday's intraday low of 18.62, below the 21-day, as a place to exit.
Amazon, Nvidia Stock
Amazon stock dipped 0.5% on Tuesday to 147.03, but bounced off lows to hold a 145.86 consolidation buy point. Shares edged higher in premarket trade.
Nvidia stock edged down 0.9% to 478.21, finding support intraday near the 476.09 double-bottom buy point and the 21-day line. NVDA advanced 1% before the open.
On Tuesday, Amazon unveiled its Trainium2 artificial intelligence chip and a general-purpose Graviton4 processor at its Reinvent conference. But Amazon Web Services also will offer access to Nvidia's latest H200 AI GPUs.
Microsoft took a similar tack earlier this month, showcasing its own AI chip while also saying its Azure cloud-computing arm will have Nvidia H200 GPUs.
Amazon also announced an AI chatbot for businesses, called Q. That'll compete with Microsoft's Copilot as well as Google's Duet AI and OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise.
MSFT stock climbed 1.1% to 382.70, hitting a record high. Shares are holding within a buy zone, but look extended from moving averages.
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What To Do Now
The stock market rally continues to do well. Buying opportunities are not as plentiful with so many leaders extended. Some new setups are from lagging stocks.
Investors could be nibbling at new or add-on buys, taking some preemptive profits to lock in gains or simply stand pat. A lot of that will depend on your exposure, how your stocks are acting and your investing style.
Keep working on watchlists. The recent pause in the major indexes is creating some handles, though they are generally wafer thin. A modest pullback would be helpful in this regard.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson, Threads at @edcarson1971 and Bluesky at @edcarson.bsky.social for stock market updates and more.
