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Nasdaq Surges Over 1.6% on Strong Q2 Earnings, and OPEC’s Surprising and bold statement boosts investors’ hopes.
Wall Street’s main indexes extended their gains for three consecutive days as of Thursday’s trading session. Boosted by the S&P 500 benchmark gains, The indexes rose by 0.91%; the high increase was driven by a better-than-expected quarterly earnings report.
Speaking about the ongoing corporate earnings reports, Thursday’s released reports came in better than previous market expectations. PepsiCo corporate delivered an outstanding earnings report, which in turn boosted its stock price by more than 2%. Alphabet Inc.’s share prices jumped by 4% this morning. The company has recently joined the AI market, which increases its revenues and its market share per price. On the other hand, another tech giant is gathering momentum in the AI market. With intentions to release a commercial version of its AI massive learning model, Meta Platforms seized on the artificial intelligence trend. Researchers and academicians had earlier in the year obtained access to this model. Amazon’s stock increased more than 2% when it was revealed that U.S. online sales from its Prime Day promotional campaign increased by 6.1% to $12.7 billion.
Moreover, The strong quarterly earnings reported by Delta Air Lines beat Wall Street forecasts. The airline did accept the possibility of long-term capacity issues, which dampened the stock’s mood a little.
By the end of the midday trading hours, Wall Street’s main indexes gains were as follows: The S&P 500 was up by 0.91%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.64%, scoring the highest increase for this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 0.23%, slightly lower than the previous morning’s gains of 0.3%.
Still, even with the contentious gains in the stock market’s main indexes, the dollar index crashed today. The U.S. dollar index fell by 0.75%, its lowest level this year. This in turn raises concern about inflation and the market’s ability to stabilize the global supply and demand chain. Yet, Despite the concerns about rising inflation and potential interest rate hikes in the United States, OPEC made a bold statement on Thursday about its demand forecast for the current and upcoming years. The aim was to reassure everyone that the oil market is in good shape and everything is going well.
The OPEC statement included some of the following market forecasts:
According to OPEC’s report, Iran and Iraq were the main contributors to the organization’s production rise of 91,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 28.19 million bpd in June.
Iran did not need to restrict its output because it is an exempt member of OPEC.
According to OPEC’s predictions, the US would make up the majority of the increase in non-OPEC production in the upcoming year.
However, OPEC anticipates a slower rate of expansion for U.S. tight oil (shale), with a projected increase of 500,000 bpd in 2024 as opposed to 730,000 bpd in 2023.
On average, both West Texas Intermediate and Brent oil rose by more than 2% on Thursday. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate added $1.55, and the Brent oil market price rose by $1.62.
