Volume began to thin on Wednesday ahead of the long weekend. Please note that the stock and bond markets will be closed on Friday for Good Friday.
Market participants were in a relatively upbeat mood on the day, with major indexes ending high across the board.
At the end, Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to 16,399.of S&P500 The number of cases increased by 0.9% to 5,248 cases, a new record high. Dow Jones Industrial Average As a major pharmaceutical company, it outperformed its peers, increasing by 1.2% to 39,760 cases. Merck (MRK) was played.
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Merck hits record high after regulatory victory
Merck was still the best dow jones stocks Today, the stock jumped 5% to a record closing price of $131.75 following the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) announcement. Winreair approvedthe company's drug for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Analysts at BofA Securities said the approval came as a sigh of relief among investors as there were no additional labeling requirements beyond the expected oversight requirements. Jeff Meacham (buy). The analyst sees upside to WinreAir's approval and expects sales to reach $4.7 billion by 2030.
GameStop sinks due to Q4 mistake
In other individual stock news, game stop (GME) saw a notable sell-off, dropping 15% post-earnings. The video game retailer reported fourth-quarter earnings of 22 cents per share on revenue of $1.79 billion. This fell short of analysts' expectations that he would earn 30 cents per share on sales of $2.05 billion.
“Even with an extra week in the quarter and slightly more positive industry trends, GameStop delivered a significant sales decline. [-24% year-over-year] “The company continues to respond to a mix shift in software sales, declining hardware sales, fewer large console releases, and growth in subscription services,” Wedbush Securities analysts said. Michael Pachter (Underperform, equivalent to sell).
Pachter added that GME's fate is unlikely to be decided within the next 12 months. “But we expect it to disappear at some point in the second half of this decade.”
PCE, Powell on deck
Looking ahead, Thursday economic calendar We'll feature some notable reports, including the final numbers for the first quarter's gross domestic product (GDP) and the University of Michigan's March Consumer Sentiment Index.
But the key data point is the February Personal Consumption and Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's favorite inflation measure that tracks consumer spending, to be released on Friday morning. This will be followed by a late morning speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
sticky inflation The data pushed expectations for the first quarterly point rate cut from June to May. But the Fed's “dot plot” released last week showed that most central bank officials still expect. 3/4 point cut to federal funds rate This is despite inflation expectations rising slightly this year.
Considering Friday stock market holidaysMonday's trading could get off to a choppy start, depending on the outcome of the PCE data and Powell's speech.
