U.S. Stocks Move Slightly Higher After Recovering From Initial Weakness

After giving back ground early in the session, stocks have once again moved to the upside over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages have bounced well off their lows of the session and into positive territory.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest gains. The Dow is up 25.10 points or 0.1 percent at 37,583.02, the Nasdaq is up 31.96 points or 0.2 percent at 15,035.18 and the S&P 500 is up 2.41 points or 0.1 percent at 4,770.78.

Profit taking contributed to the initial weakness on Wall Street, as some traders look to cash in on the recent strength in the markets after the Dow and the Nasdaq closed higher for the ninth consecutive session on Tuesday.

Selling pressure waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders seemed reluctant to move out of the markets amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

The subsequent rebound may have reflected a positive reaction to a report from the Conference Board showing U.S. consumer confidence has improved by much more than anticipated in the month of December.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 110.7 in December from a downwardly revised 101.0 in November.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 103.4 from the 102.0 originally reported for the previous month.

“Today’s data on consumer confidence puts up another point on the scoreboard for the soft landing camp as the Conference Board’s index jumped to the highest level since January of 2022,” said Charlie Ripley, Senior Investment Strategist for Allianz Investment Management.

“Perhaps at the end of the day, consumers are simply adjusting to higher prices and the drag on consumer sentiment from inflation has started to wane,” he added. “Either way, the strengthening in consumer confidence recently only adds additional support to Powell’s soft-landing objective.”

A separate report released by the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected rebound in U.S….