Wednesday's Stock Market Open: US Equities Rise As Senate Approves New Relief Bill, Oil Prices Stabilize

Update: 12:05 p.m. EDT:

U.S. stocks traded higher as of noon Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 460.46 points to 23,479.34, while the S&P 500 rose 58.70 points to 2,795.26 and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 197.40 points to 8,460.63.

In Europe markets closed higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 2.3%, France’s CAC-40 climbed 1.25% and Germany’s DAX rose 1.61%.

Crude oil futures surged 25.06% to $14.47 per barrel.

Original story:

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as oil prices stabilized and the Senate passed a new relief bill for small businesses and hospitals.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 428.88 points to 23,447.76, while the S&P 500 rose 54.74 points to 2,791.30 and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 177.46 points to 8,440.69.

Late Tuesday, Senate Republicans and Democrats passed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill to assist small businesses, hospitals, and testing. The House could approve the package on Thursday.

Oil prices appear to have stabilized, two days after West Texas Intermediate futures plunged deep into negative territory.

“This week investors are realizing that even though the crisis could soon get better, the negative impacts of having an economy which is essentially shut down are magnifying at an alarming rate. With no demand even for a couple of months, energy prices go negative as excess oil supplies balloon,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group.

Per Magnus Nysveen, senior partner and head of analysis at Rystad Energy, warned that oil markets are facing worse challenges.

“The world is running out of places to store the oil,” he said. “When the supply and demand balance is positive or negative, then you can build or draw from storage. But when the storage gets full, then there is no buffer for this very strong imbalance that we’re seeing.”

Jean-Pierre Durante, head of applied research at Pictet Wealth Management, similarly warned: “World storage capacity will rapidly reach saturation point.”

California officials said the coronavirus killed two people in the state in early and mid-February, indicating the illness was present in the U.S. weeks earlier than previously thought.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) posted a pre-tax loss of $607 million in the first quarter – it’s first quarterly loss in five years. Delta also gave a grim forecast for the second quarter.

“There’s no way you can predict earnings right now,” said Michael Cuggino, portfolio manager at Pacific Heights Asset Management. “It’s virtually impossible until we have more visibility with respect to how [the] world comes out of the coronavirus on the other side.”

Overnight in Asia, markets were mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.6%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.42% and Japan’s Nikkei-225 fell 0.74%.

In Europe markets traded higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 2.24%, France’s CAC-40 climbed 1.1% and Germany’s DAX rose 1.28%.

Crude oil futures surged 19.01% at $13.77 per barrel, Brent crude gained 8.38% at $20.95. Gold futures edged up 2.3%.

The euro edged up 0.02% at $1.0861 while the pound sterling rose 0.39% at $1.2342.