Stocks on Thursday clawed back from the previous day’s downgrade-spurred sell-off as highly anticipated earnings loom later in the day.
In midday trading, S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was roughly flat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.1%.
Treasury yields surged as Wall Street continued to assess the fallout from ratings agency Fitch’s downgrade of US credit. The benchmark 10-year yield jumped to 4.17% Thursday.
Stocks sold off on Wednesday, led by a more than 2% decline in the Nasdaq, its worst day since February, as traders moved away from riskier assets.
Aside from the downgrade, earnings remain top of mind for investors, with Thursday’s main event coming in the form of a one-two punch from Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) after the bell. They will be among the last of the high-flying tech companies to report this quarter. Both stocks are up around 50% this year.
Elsewhere on the earnings docket, PayPal (PYPL) and Qualcomm (QCOM) stocks both plummeted Thursday after disappointing earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Moderna (MRNA) shares rose after the company upped its COVID-19 vaccine sales forecast for the fall.