Dow Jones regained 34,000 points boosted by Walmart rally

The Dow Jones Industrial Average regained 34,000 points, climbing above that level for the first time since May as encouraging economic figures from Walmart boosted investor sentiment today.

Walmart’s strong results gave the indexes the necessary boost to continue their recent rally that took them to a three-month high.

It is noted that the S&P index is up more than 17% from the lows it hit in mid-June, although it remains about 10% lower than the all-time high it hit on January 3rd.

The stock rally is fueled by hopes that inflation has hit record highs and the Federal Reserve will now be able to slow its tightening of monetary policy, abandoning its aggressive rate hikes that reached 75 basis points in its last two meetings. .

Poor economic data from China and a disappointing survey of US East Coast manufacturing released earlier in the week may give the Fed more reason to push ahead with softer interest rate hikes next.

It is noted that on Wednesday the minutes of the last meeting of the Fed will be made public, which are expected to provide new information on the reasoning of the central bank.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones added 258.97 points, or 0.76%, to 34,171.41, while the S&P 500 gained 13.54 points, or 0.32%, to 4,310.64. The tech Nasdaq lost 12.71 points, or -0.10%, to 13,115.14.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial index, 22 move with a positive sign and 8 with a negative sign. The biggest increase was recorded by Walmart with gains of $7.78 or 5.87% to $140.38, followed by Home Depot at $329.71 with an increase of 4.80% and IBM with gains of 1.57 % to $137.05

The jump in Walmart shares comes after it reported earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, while the retail giant revised upward its full-year guidance.

Home Depot also reported record sales for the second quarter today and reaffirmed its guidance for the full year.

The biggest losers are Salesforce (-1.02%), 3M (-0.63%) and Visa (-0.43%).

The corporate earnings period wraps up in the next few days with announcements from Target Corp. and Lowe’s Cos. on Wednesday and Kohl’s Corp. on Thursday.

By the end of the day, industrial production rose 0.6 percent in July, the Federal Reserve said, beating analysts’ estimates of a 0.3 percent rise in a poll by The Wall Street Journal.

Capacity utilization rebounded to 80.3% in July from 79.9% the previous month, central bank data showed. Analysts had expected it to rebound to 80.2%.

For manufacturing in particular, Fed data showed output rose 0.7% in July after falling in the previous two months. In contrast, output from utilities fell 0.8% in July. Finally, mining production rose 0.7%, completing three consecutive months of strong gains.