Dow Jones Falls 0.5% as S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Post Modest Mid-Day Gains
Key Points
- The Big Three market indexes are staying within 1% of Tuesday’s close today.
- Tesla surged 6.1% on bullish analyst notes and news about custom self-driving chips.
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Mega-banks are posting strong Q1 results, but their reports aren’t sparking huge stock jumps.
- 10 stocks we like better than Dow Jones Industrial Average ›
Happy Tax Day, everyone! While you’re scrambling to file those returns, Wall Street is having a mixed day today.
Just after 1:00 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq-100 is the mid-day leader, up 0.6%. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is tagging along with a 0.4% gain. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI)? It’s sitting in the opposite corner with a 0.4% loss, nursing its wounds after taking a sharp dive around 9:45 a.m.
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The forces behind today’s divergent market action
Earnings season is here, and the big banks came to play. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) reported EPS of $1.11 this morning, a 25% jump from the year-ago period. CEO Brian Moynihan called it evidence of “a resilient American economy,” and honestly, the numbers back him up. Revenue hit $30.3 billion, with every business segment posting growth.
The usual suspects are directing the index action, of course. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up 3.8%, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has climbed 2.5%, and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is having a party with a 6.1% surge. Those heavyweight tech names are doing the heavy lifting for the cap-weighted indexes.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meanwhile, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) dropped 4.5%, and since the Dow weights its components by price rather than market cap, that one stock is doing a lot of damage. And Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), with the heaviest Dow Jones weight of them all, started the morning on an upswing but took a sudden dive around — you guessed it — 9:45 a.m. ET. As of this writing, Goldman is down by 0.7%. That reversal explains the Dow’s diverging chart line.
Goldman’s price swing was fairly modest, staying within 1% of the breakeven line in both directions. The fact that such a small move had needle-moving effects is a testament to the bank’s massive index weight, and also to an otherwise quiet news day.
As for the tech-based gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, Tesla received a couple of bullish analyst notes ahead of next week’s earnings report, and the company is reportedly on the cusp of manufacturing custom chips for advanced self-driving systems.
Otherwise, there wasn’t much market-moving news to report in the tech sector. Investors are quietly celebrating a day of muted tension in the Persian Gulf. The brittle ceasefire is still holding.
The bigger picture
Tech stocks are rallying, banks are posting stellar results, and the market is barely moving.
The good news: Corporate America, at least the financial sector, appears to be handling the current macro uncertainty reasonably well. The bad news: Oil supply constraints could lead to a recession before the end of the year. The global economy looks fragile in this complicated scenario.
In the end, it’s just another normal day on Wall Street in 2026 — by the definition of “normal” in the spring of 2026, that is. The Iranian conflict is still explosive and every earnings report is an exercise in rolling with the punches. Stay diversified, stay informed, and try to file those tax papers before midnight.
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Caterpillar, Goldman Sachs Group, Microsoft, and Tesla and is short shares of Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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