Dow closes more than 100 points higher as stocks recoup some losses following big sell-off: Live updates

Stocks ended Wednesday's trading session higher, making back some of their losses from Tuesday.

The S&P 500 added 0.96% to close at 5,000.62, while the Nasdaq Composite edged 1.30% higher to settle at 15,859.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 151.52 points, or 0.40%, to finish at 38,424.27.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr on Wednesday backed the central bank's cautious approach to lowering interest rates this year.

In prepared remarks to the National Association for Business Economics, Barr expressed confidence that inflation is heading back to the Fed's 2% goal but noted "we need to see continued good data before we can begin the process of reducing the federal funds rate."

This week's consumer price index data showing inflation higher than expected in January was "a reminder that the path back to 2% inflation may be a bumpy one."

Along with the comments on monetary policy, Barr assessed the banking system's conditions as "sound and resilient" though he said there are "a few pockets of risk," most notably commercial real estate.

—Jeff Cox

Wolfe Research thinks the S&P 500 could decline to 4,800 after Monday's selloff spurred by a higher-than-expected inflation report.

Macro strategist Rob Ginsberg noted that while the January inflation data seemingly acted the main catalyst Wall Street's decline on Tuesday, he added that the selloff simultaneously "felt like the start of a much overdue digestion of gains." The benchmark index slipped 1.37% on Tuesday, and a move down to the 4,800 level represents a roughly 3.4% further decline from current levels.

"The overbought condition which has lingered for over 2 months, may finally be coming in," Ginsberg said.

— Brian Evans

Small caps mounted a comeback on Wednesday, making up ground after selling off in the previous session.

The small cap-focused Russell 2000 climbed more than 2% in Wednesday's session, easily outperforming the three major indexes. That follows a particularly challenging Tuesday, when the index dropped 4% while the broad S&P 500 lost just 1.4%.

Despite Wednesday's gain, the Russell 2000 is still down on the year.

— Alex Harring

U.S. consumer spending has softened, with spending on flowers down 16% month to date versus 2023 levels, according to Barclays analyst Josh Grasso.

Looking at credit card spending for all merchants categorized under 'Florists supplies, Nursery Stock and Flowers,' Barclays found that spending from the start of February through the 11th was the slowest-developing season across post-pandemic years.

"Softer Valentine's Data flowers spending also follows the softer gym spending that we identified last month and overall weakness in the aggregate spending in our consumer credit card data," Grasso wrote in a Monday note.

— Hakyung Kim

Crude oil futures fell Wednesday, giving up gains from earlier in the session as stockpiles surged in the U.S. while demand fell. 

The West Texas Intermediate contract for March lost $1.23, or 1.58%, to settle at $76.64 a barrel. The Brent contract for April settled at $81.60 a barrel, down $1.17 or 1.41%.

The move came after commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. surged by 12 million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. Oil demand as measured by finished products supplied to the market dropped by 973,000 barrels per day during the same period. 

Oil prices had gained 1% earlier in the trading session after Israel launched airstrikes in Lebanon in reaction to rockets fired into northern Israel that killed one person and injured at least seven more.

— Spencer Kimball

Seasonality-wise, February may be a traditionally weak month for markets, but that could soon turn around if history is any indication, according to CFRA chief investment strategist Sam Stovall.

"February is typically the second worst month, but I think that could serve as a springboard for the rest of the year," he told CNBC in an interview. "Some of these early-in-the-year indicators make me believe that this will still be a positive year."

Since World War 2, every January in an election year that has ended in a positive monthly gain has also resulted in a positive return for the year, Stovall shared.

He added: "We've had new highs in both January and February, and whenever that has happened the average advanced approximately 16% for the full year and we were up 88% of the time, versus a more normal 9% rise and a 73% batting average. So higher returns and better frequency of advance typically have followed all-time highs in both January and February."

— Lisa Kailai Han

Cocoa futures are on pace for their 7th straight positive week after hitting a record high last Friday.

A slew of adverse weather conditions and an onslaught of cacao swollen shoot virus have propelled the commodity's price in recent months. Last week alone, cocoa prices gained almost 12%.

Earlier this month, Hershey reported that its year-over-year sales had dropped 6.6% in the fourth quarter. "Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business," said CEO Michele Buck.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Gina Francolla

The industrial sector outperformed the S&P 500 on Wednesday, rising 1.2%. Uber shares rallied 11.5%, followed by Johnson Controls International and Dayforce gaining more than 3%.

The only two sectors in the red were energy and consumer staples, down 0.4% and 0.5% each. Kraft Heinz and Campbell Soup Company were the biggest decliners among consumer staples stocks, falling 5.9% and 2.6%, respectively.

In the energy sector, Williams Companies dropped 3.5%, followed by EQT and Valero Energy down 2.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

Apple was the biggest laggard in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The iPhone maker was down by 1.3% in early afternoon trading. That curbed gains for the 30-stock index, which was last little changed.

— Sarah Min

These are some of the biggest movers in midday trading:

• Lyft —  Shares of the ride-hailing platform surged 31% after the company posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents per share in the fourth quarter, more than the LSEG consensus estimate of 8 cents per-share earnings.
• Uber — Uber's shares jumped 11%, climbing to a new 52-week high, after the ride-hailing company announced an inaugural $7 billion share repurchase authorization program.
• IQVIA Holdings — The health tech company saw its shares rise 10% after it posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations, according to LSEG.
• Charles River Laboratories — The drug maker gained 9% after fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $2.46 per share beat analysts' estimates of $2.40 per share, according to FactSet. Charles River posted $1.01 billion in revenue, while analysts anticipated $991.3 million.

For more check out the full list here.

— Tanaya Macheel

Tuesday's sell off came on the heels of higher rates and the push out of rate cut expectations, which means market participants are going back into the 2023 playbook of buying high-quality momentum/growth names, according to BTIG.

"We still think over the next few weeks there is more downside risk in high-mo names, but as always momentum is a hard thing to break and it will take more than one day of a drawdown to do so," analyst Jonathan Krinsky wrote in a note Tuesday.

— Michelle Fox

25 stocks within the S&P 500 index notched new 52-week highs during Wednesday's trading session.

Of these names, 16 stocks hit new all-time highs. Here are some of the names that hit the milestone:

• MasterCard since its IPO in May, 2006.
• Progressive since its IPO in 1971.
• Eli Lilly since 1952, when the company offered its first public shares of stock.
• Uber since its IPO in May, 2019.
• Lam Research since its IPO in May, 1984.
• Waste Management through our history to July, 1988.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Christopher Hayes

Major cloud ETFs are down for the week, with First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) and WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund (WCLD) on track to notch their first negative week in six.

The losses were in part led by shares of Shopify, JFrog, Monday.com and Blackbaud. All four stocks were all down at least 8% for this week.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Gina Francolla

Nvidia topped Alphabet in market value during Wednesday's session after surpassing Amazon in market capitalization earlier in the week.

The chipmaking stock was last up less than 1% and trading at a market cap of more than $1.83 trillion. Alphabet last traded a nudge lower at a market cap of $1.8 trillion.

This move pushes Nvidia to the third largest market cap in the S&P 500 behind Microsoft and Apple.

— Samantha Subin

Shares of Lyft headed for their best day in the rideshare provider's nearly half-decade on the public market as investors digested the latest earnings report.

Lyft shares climbed more than 31% in midday trading on Wednesday, putting the stock on pace to see its best day since it began trading in March 2019. The stock's next best day on record is March 19, 2020, when it added 29%.

Wednesday's rally comes a day after the rideshare company posted earnings per share that beat expectations for the fourth quarter, while revenue came in line with Wall Street forecasts. But leadership had to correct a major error in margin expansion numbers during the company's earnings call.

— Alex Harring

An expected first half rise in stock market volatility has begun and "history suggests at least a 5% SPX slide," Wells Fargo equity strategist Christopher Harvey write in a note Wednesday, referring to the S&P 500. Tuesday's "market action might be the start of the selloff we have been expecting," Harvey said.

Momentum and trend following strategies that emphasize buying strong stocks and selling weaker ones have worked well lately, Wells Fargo said. "Price momentum remains one of the best-performing factors in recent months," with a 12-month momentum screen of the Russell 1000 stocks returning 5% in January, Harvey said. "Passive trends have helped trend-following strategies: As money shifts into passive, more portfolio money is dedicated to names that are 'working' vs. names that are not, supporting trend-following techniques."

As a result, Harvey recommended overweighting communications services, health care and utility stocks and underweighting energy and industrial companies, and software over computer hardware names.

"GDP strength supports Fed Funds re-pricing," Harvey said, acknowledging the recent move higher in Treasury yields is warranted by the vigorous economy.

— Scott Schnipper

While some well-known seasonality patterns exist within the equity market, Citi has revealed that there may not always be a clear reason to back these trends.

"While anecdotal evidence exists for monthly return patterns in equities, statistical evidence is at best patchy," wrote analyst Chris Montagu. "We find that while on average there are distinct monthly return patterns, in many cases statistical significance is absent as well as economic rationale as to why they exist."

Montagu added that amongst the market seasonality patterns, the trends with respect to style factors have been less studied by investors.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Deutsche Bank sees several events on the horizon that could give shares of General Electric, its top large-cap stock, a boost. One is the company's investor days on March 6-7, another is the April spinoff of GE Vernova — and announcements tied to this event. Analyst Scott Deuschle also expects GE has set itself up for a strong first-quarter earnings beat.

Over the past year, GE shares have risen nearly 72%. Deuschle has a $185 price target for GE, which is about 28% higher than its Tuesday close.

"Since the beginning of 2023, GE's share price performance has correlated more with Microsoft ... than it has with Aerospace stocks ... , the XLI ... , or the S&P 500 ...," Deuschle said.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Stocks rose on Wednesday, clawing back some of their steep Tuesday losses that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average cinching its worst day since March 2023.

The 30-stock index rose 116 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 added 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9%.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said longer-term inflation indicators still look positive even after the consumer price index in January came in stronger than expected.

In remarks to be delivered Wednesday morning, the central bank official said core inflation, which strips out food and energy, has been running at or below the Fed's 2% annual target as measured by personal consumption expenditures prices, according to notes released ahead of the 9:30 a.m. ET speech.

However, core CPI, a slightly different measure, held at 3.9% in January, boosted largely by higher than expected shelter costs.

Goolsbee, a nonvoting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, noted the stronger housing reading but said alternative measures have told a different story, and he pointed out that goods inflation has continued to recede.

—Jeff Cox

Gold and silver hit prices last seen in 2023 early Wednesday.

Gold touched 1998.2, its lowest since it reached 1,987.9 on Dec. 13. Silver fell as low as 21.975, a price last seen on Nov. 13, when it traded at 21.925.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• Lyft — Shares surged 21% after the ride-hailing company posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued better-than-expected guidance. In its most recent quarter, Lyft posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents per share, more than the LSEG consensus estimate of 8 cents per-share earnings. Revenue of $1.22 billion was in line with analysts' expectations. However, Lyft shares were off their Tuesday post-market high as the company corrected an overstatement of its margin forecast contained in its initial press release.
• Robinhood Markets — Shares of Robinhood soared roughly 16.5% after the investing platform beat on earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter. Robinhood reported a profit of 3 cents per share on $471 million in revenue, while analysts polled by LSEG forecasted a loss of 1 cent per share on $457 million in revenue.
• Angi — Shares jumped 7% after the home services platform reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss. Angi posted a fourth-quarter loss of 1 cent per share, smaller than the loss of 2 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. On the other hand, revenue of $300.4 million came in below the FactSet consensus estimate of $309.9 million.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Between $400 billion to $600 billion worth of cash that has built up on household and corporate balance sheets is set to move back into risk assets in the near future, according to Barclays.

Analyst Joseph Abate pointed out that cash has piled up since early 2020, with cash holdings sitting at three standard deviations higher than their long-term average. Abate added that most of this liquidity belongs to households and sits in checking deposit accounts.

"We think there are two potential catalysts that could prompt cash to move: 1) lower cash returns , and 2) a decline in risk aversion," Abate wrote. "Retail fund flow patterns post-GFC suggest that cash coming in from the sidelines is likely to favor credit over equities."

— Lisa Kailai Han

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos sold roughly $2.08 billion of shares in the e-commerce company over the past few days, according to a filing.

The sales of 11,997,698 Amazon shares began Friday and continued Monday, the filing showed. The sales were executed under a prearranged trading plan that Bezos adopted in November. As part of the plan, Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021, plans to sell 50 million Amazon shares before Jan. 31, 2025.

— Yun Li, Annie Palmer

Lyft shares soared after the company's fourth-quarter report was released, but they later pared those gains after management flagged the report included a critical error.

CFO Erin Brewer told analysts that Lyft misstated its margin expansion in the release. Instead of 500 basis points (5%) of growth for the year, Lyft sees an increase of 50 basis points (0.5%).

The stock gave up some of its initial gains but was still up more than 20% in the premarket Wednesday on the back of strong fourth-quarter earnings.

— Fred Imbert, Ari Levy

Bitcoin surged more than 4% to its highest level in two years on Wednesday, pushing its market cap back over $1 trillion as growing success of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs turned investor sentiment more positive.

The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by about 4% at $51,544.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier in the morning it rose to $51,803.00. Ether also rose about 4% to $2,748.53.

The surge pulled crypto-related equities higher in premarket trading. Trading platform Coinbase and bitcoin proxy Microstrategy gained 7% each. Miners Iris Energy and CleanSpark rose 17% and 14%, respectively, while Marathon Digital advanced 12% and Riot Platforms added 9%.

— Tanaya Macheel

Markets are taking a breather following Tuesday's post-CPI sell-off, as investors reassess inflation expectations going forward, Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge wrote to clients.

"Markets are rebounding sharply so far this morning following the CPI-induced shellacking on Tuesday," he wrote. "There's a bit of a reassessment taking place on inflation after the (brief but intense) panic yesterday thanks to downside price readings this morning out of the UK and India, along with a slew of disinflationary trends throughout earnings reports."

"While the US CPI was undoubtably disappointing, it's hardly a market-killing number (that's not to say though that parts of the market, especially tech, were overbought and in need of a consolidation period)," he added.

— Fred Imbert

European shares made a muted start to Wednesday's trade.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index inched 0.1% higher in early trade, with retail stocks adding 0.5% while mining stocks slipped 0.7% lower.

Britain's FTSE 100 was the top performer, adding 0.6% while most major European bourses hovered around the flatline.

- Elliot Smith

U.K. inflation held steady at 4% year-on-year in January on the back of easing prices for furniture and household goods, food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Month-on-month, the headline consumer price index fell to -0.6%, returning to negative territory after December's surprise increase by 0.4% on the month and 4% annually.

Economists polled by Reuters had produced a consensus forecast of 4.2% year-on-year for January and -0.3% for the month.

"The largest upward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from housing and household services (principally higher gas and electricity charges), while the largest downward contribution came from furniture and household goods, and food and non-alcoholic beverages," the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.

Read the full story here

- Elliot Smith

Artificial intelligence will be more than just a passing fad, but that doesn't mean now is a good time to buy the stocks tied to the trend, according to GMO co-founder Jeremy Grantham.

"My guess is we are getting wildly enthusiastic about AI. It is an incredibly important development, like the internet was, and probably more so. … But it will need a digestive phase. We are, I think, way over our skis," Grantham said at the Exchange ETF conference on Tuesday.

The fund manager, who has built his multidecade career around identifying quality stocks and avoiding speculative booms, compared AI to the tech bubble around 2000 and the bubble in railroad stocks more than a century ago.

— Jesse Pound

European earnings have seen a robust season, and signs point to this strength staying, according to Bernstein.

"European forward earnings are currently 14% above their long-run trend, and 30% higher than pre-Covid at the market level, which makes for an uneasy visual," the investment firm wrote. "Is there a risk of a significant cut to estimates and earnings return to long-run trend?"

To answer this question, Bernstein polled analysts covering banks, semiconductors, energy, autos and capital goods, or the European industries whose earnings have so far been most above trend.

"While near-term tactical earnings downgrades are expected in all cases, we do not see a significant risk of earnings returning to trend, for reasons which are idiosyncratic to each industry," Bernstein wrote.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading.

Robinhood Markets — Shares jumped 9.5% after the trading platform posted a surprise earnings and revenue beat. Robinhood reported 3 cents in earnings per share, versus analysts' expectations of a loss of 1 cent per share, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $471 million, topping the $457 million expected by analysts. 

Lyft — The ride-hailing operator saw its shares soar 18.5% in extended trading after it reported strong fourth-quarter results and gave better-than-expected guidance. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of 18 cents for the fourth quarter, topping analysts' estimates of 8 cents, according to LSEG. Revenue of $1.22 billion was in line with analysts' expectations.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. stock futures opened little changed on Tuesday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked down 19 points, or 0.05%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 traded near the flatline, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.08%.

— Hakyung Kim