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Nasdaq Leads Stock Market Rally; Bitcoin Jumps; IBD 50 Names Soar

The stock market ended with solid gains Wednesday as Wall Street looked past some eyebrow-raising economic data before the open.

X  The Nasdaq composite, S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average extended their winning streaks to four sessions. The Nasdaq jumped 1.9%, the S&P 500 added 1.3% and the Dow picked up 1%. Small caps also did well, with the Russell 2000 up 1.9% at the close. Preliminary data showed volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq coming in higher than Tuesday's levels.

The Nasdaq reclaimed the 50-day moving average, a key technical development, but the Dow and S&P 500 came up short despite solid gains.

Premarket gains of around 0.5% for the major stock indexes faded badly after Wall Street got news of hotter-than-expected consumer inflation along with weaker-than-expected January retail sales.


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Consumer prices rose 0.5% in January, above the consensus estimate of 0.3%. The core rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was up 0.3%, also above the estimate for 0.2%. Meanwhile, retail sales fell 0.3% in January vs. an expected increase of 0.3%. Excluding autos, sales were flat vs. an expected gain of 0.5%.

The stock market looked past a big jump in the 10-year Treasury yield. It rose 8 basis points to 2.91%, helping the cause of financial stocks. Dow components JPMorgan (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) ended with gains of more than 2%.

Inside the Marketsmith Growth 250, Zions Bancorp (ZION) jumped 5% in heavy volume. It's getting support at the 10-week moving average for the first time after a breakout from a base in late November.

Meanwhile, volatile trade continued in Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was up nearly 9% to $9,257, according to Coindesk.

In the stock market today, Netflix (NFLX) gained 3% after the company inked a deal with producer Ryan Murphy to produce original content. Murphy is behind such shows as "Glee" and "American Horror Story," among others. The New York Times reported late Tuesday that Murphy secured a five-year deal with Netflix that could be worth as much as $300 million. Netflix had been showing uncanny strength when the market sold off last week.

Chinese company JD.com (JD) rose for the fourth straight session, gaining 5% to 46.86, helped by news of a $2.5 billion investment in its logistics business. The stock is close to reclaiming a 47.50 buy point. But a sell signal after its breakout means investors will need to wait for a new chart pattern to emerge.

The IBD 50 offered up plenty of strong price performers with about half the names on the list up 2% or more. Abiomed (ABMD), Weibo (WB) and Grubhub (GRUB) led the way with gains ranging from 6% to 9%.

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