Dow jumps 100 points for its eighth straight winning day, a first since 2019: Live updates

Stocks rose Wednesday as the corporate earnings season continued, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average registering its longest winning streak in nearly four years.

The Dow traded 109.28 points higher, or 0.31%, to close at 35,061.21. The S&P 500 climbed 0.24% to 4,565.72, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.03% to finish the session at 14,358.02. The Dow notched its eighth straight day of gains, its longest winning streak since September 2019.

Goldman Sachs reported a miss on profit and a beat on revenue Wednesday, tied to losses in real estate as well as GreenSky. Goldman had previously warned investors that the quarter would likely yield lackluster results. Shares added nearly 1%. Elsewhere, shares of U.S. Bancorp and J.B. Hunt popped about 6.5% and 3.7%, respectively.

Other major companies such as Netflix, Tesla, IBM and United Airlines will post earnings after the close.

Thus far, the second-quarter earnings season is off to a strong start. Of the companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 78% have exceeded expectations, according to FactSet data. For many investors, the recent streak of gains bolsters the case for a soft-landing scenario. It's an outlook that has gained traction after last week's encouraging inflation data.

"Bank earnings are better than feared and are pushing the episodic crisis from the spring further into the rearview mirror and (thus far) continue to trade like a soft landing will occur," said George Catrambone, head of fixed income and trading at DWS Group. "The commentary from CEO's mirrors what the retail sales control group told us today – which is spending is largely intact, despite some credit normalization."

Carvana shares climbed 40% after the used car retailer secured a deal to reduce roughly $1.2 billion in debt. The online auto retailer posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, having moved the date of its report up from Aug. 3.

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Stocks close higher

Stocks closed higher on Wednesday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average earnings its eighth-straight positive session, which is the longest streak for the index since September 2019.

The 30-stock Dow added 109.28 points, or 0.3%, to close at 35,061.21. The S&P 500 climbed 0.2% to 4,565.72 while the Nasdaq Composite inched up by 0.03% to 14,358.02.

— Brian Evans

New ETF offers full downside protection

One of the newest ETFs on the market is trying to give ultra cautious investors a way to participate in this rally.

The Innovator Equity Defined Protection ETF (TJUL) launched on Tuesday, offering 100% downside protection in exchange for capped upside over the next two years.

But the fund's options strategy includes several key caveats for investors. Read more about the fund on CNBC Pro.

— Jesse Pound

Wheat ETF soars as ag prices move higher

The Teucrium Wheat ETF (WEAT) jumped more than 6% on Wednesday as the price of agricultural commodities continued to march higher.

The price of wheat has risen sharply since Russia backed out of a deal that allowed grain to be shipped out of the Black Sea despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. Prices are still well below their levels from early in the war, however.

The Teucrium fund, which tracks a basket of wheat futures contracts, has jumped about 20% over the past week.

— Jesse Pound

Agricultural commodities rise Wednesday

Corn, wheat and soybeans jumped Wednesday. Concerns over dry weather forecasts in the U.S. Midwest and Russian air strikes on the Black Sea port of Odessa following its withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative spurred wheat prices higher.

Wheat futures are up 5.4% Wednesday and almost 6% week to date, on track for their best week since June 23.

Soybean futures are up 1.7% as of Wednesday morning, reaching a high of 437.4 dollars per short ton.

Corn futures jumped 3.1%Wednesday to 551.5 cents per bushel. Corn is up 7.2% week to date, on track for its best week since May 26.

— Hakyung Kim, Nick Wells

Russell 2000 pops in July and is outperforming the S&P 500

Small cap stocks are enjoying a big run in July, with the Russell 2000 up nearly 5% for the month.

The small cap benchmark is even outperforming the S&P 500, which has gained 2.6% in the period.

High-flying stocks lifting the Russell 2000 this month include bitcoin miner TeraWulf and Carvana, each up more than 100% this month alone. BridgeBio is up 97% in July, while Cipher Mining has added nearly 70%.

Though it's been a banner month for the Russell 2000, the benchmark continues to underperform the broad-market index in 2023. Year to date, the S&P 500 is up nearly 19%, while the small-cap index has gained 12%.

-Darla Mercado, Gina Francolla

Oddity Tech stock soars more than 35% after IPO

Shares of Oddity Tech added more than 35% after the company's initial public offering.

The beauty technology company that uses artificial intelligence to make cosmetic products has a market valuation of roughly $2.8 billion through midday trading Wednesday.

— Brian Evans

Second-quarter earnings scorecard

Second-quarter earnings season is just getting started, with 10% of S&P 500 companies posting results so far. Of the 50 companies that have reported, 64% have topped revenue estimates, while 80% have beaten earnings per share expectations, according to Refinitiv data.

Based on the blended growth rate, earnings are expected to fall more 8.2% from a year ago and revenues are expected to drop 0.8% year over year. The rate combines data from firms that have already reported data and those waiting to report.

— Samantha Subin

Apple is reportedly developing its own AI tools, shares rise

Shares of Apple rose nearly 1% Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported that the tech giant is developing its own artificial intelligence tools.

Apple has built its own framework to create large language models that could challenge those from OpenAI, Google and others, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the efftorts.

Shares of Apple have rallied 50% this year alone.

— Yun Li

Stocks making the biggest moves midday

See some of the stocks making the biggest midday moves here:

• Carvana — Shares soared nearly 30% after the used-car retailer reached a deal that will reduce its total outstanding debt by more than $1.2 billion
• Goldman Sachs — The banking titan advanced 1.6% despite missing expectations of analysts polled by Refinitiv for earnings and revenue.
• Joby Aviation – Shares sank more than 13% after JPMorgan downgraded the electric aircraft maker to underweight.

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Meme ETF trades at most expensive price in more than a year

Roundhill's MEME ETF (MEME), which tracks shares of companies known as meme stocks, at one traded at its highest price in over a year on Wednesday.

The fund last traded around $42.33 in Wednesday morning trading. If that was the closing price, it would've been the highest since May 4, when the fund finished the session at $43.14.

Carvana led the fund's stocks higher, gaining more than 30% after announcing a deal to reduce debt by $1.2 billion. Upstart and Affirm also contributed to the ETF's advance, with each up around 7%.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

UBS raises Berkshire price target, sees 18% gain

UBS analyst Brian Meredith hiked his 12-month price target on Berkshire Hathaway B shares to $405 from $377, representing an 18% gain from here.

The new forecast is partly a result from higher comparable multiples for Berkshire's non-insurance operations, the analyst said. Warren Buffett's conglomerate is set to report earnings next month.

UBS estimated that Berkshire's equity portfolio increased more than 10% in the second quarter, with roughly 75% of the gain coming from its massive Apple holding. The tech giant has soared 48% this year.

The B shares have gained more than 11% this year, sitting just 1% below its 52-week high.

— Yun Li

Wall Street weighs in on Microsoft's A.I. subscription

Many analysts are turning more bullish on Microsoft, upping their price targets as the software giant revealed pricing for its A.I. Copilot subscription.

JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy reaffirm the investment bank's "extreme bullish-outlier viewpoint on Generative AI and walk away incrementally positive on Microsoft's category leadership in AI as we believe it has reached 'escape velocity' in this market."

Read more on what analysts are saying about Microsoft's latest A.I. announcements here.

— Samantha Subin

Stock trading volume fell sharply in second quarter, Interactive Brokers says

Customer stock trading volumes at Interactive Brokers were down 28% year over year in the second quarter, and the success of Big Tech stocks is partly to blame, chairman Thomas Peterffy said Wednesday.

"Our top holdings have already been the big seven stocks. And as they have reached highs, people have huge unrealized profits and they are simply not trading them anymore. They don't want to realize the gains. So all the volume went to options," Peterffy said on "Squawk Box."

Shares of Interactive Brokers were down about 5% in premarket trading after the firm's adjusted earnings came in lighter-than-expected on Tuesday evening, in part due to a reserve charge following a regulatory investigation into unapproved electronic communications by employees.

"All we can do is to yell and scream at our employees to stop texting. There's no way to really enforce it, other than say if you keep texting you'll be fired, you'll be penalized," Peterffy said.

— Jesse Pound

Cinemark slips 3% following JPMorgan downgrade

Shares of movie theater chain Cinemark lost more than 3% after JPMorgan downgraded shares to neutral from overweight as strikes shutter Hollywood and limit box office visibility.

"Absent a resolution, we expect the strike will remain an overhang to CNK shares and limit upside," said analyst David Karnovsky.

Read more on the call from the Wall Street firm here.

— Samantha Subin

Regional bank stocks rise after first wave of earnings

Investors appear to breathing a sigh of relief after the first wave of regional bank earnings.

The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) rose about 1% in early trading as investors and analysts shift through reports from Western Alliance, US Bancorp and others.

Shares of Phoenix-based Western Alliance rose more than 2% despite earnings per share of $1.96 per share, 2 cents below estimates, according to Refinitiv.

— Jesse Pound

Copper prices decline Wednesday

Copper fell 0.4% Wednesday morning, after declining as much as 0.8%. The metal was last trading at 3.814.

LME Aluminum traded 0.2% lower at 2,199.

Concerns about weakening demand and lack of major stimulus in China, the world's top metals consumer, weighed upon metals prices.

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

Stocks open higher

Stocks opened higher Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average attempts to earn an eighth-straight winning session.

The 30-stock Dow added 115 points or 0.3%. Bot the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.

— Brian Evans

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket

Check out some of the companies making headlines before the bell:

Omnicom — Omnicom dropped 6% after the global marketing company's revenue missed estimates. Omnicom posted second-quarter revenue of $3.61 billion, lower than forecasts of $3.67 billion, according to consensus estimates from FactSet. It narrowly beat earnings expectations, posting adjusted earnings of $1.81 per share, higher than the consensus estimates of $1.80 per share.

Goldman Sachs — The bank stock declined 0.3% after Goldman Sachs missed expectations in its second-quarter earnings. The company posted earnings of $3.08 a share, lower than the Refinitiv forecast of $3.18 per share. Goldman also reported revenue of $10.9 billion, which was more than the expected $10.84 billion.

Joby Aviation — The electric aircraft stock sank 6.3% in premarket trading after being downgraded by JPMorgan to underweight from neutral. The Wall Street firm said Joby's recent rally is "largely overblown" and likely the result of short covering. Shares are up 200% year to date.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Housing numbers show continued slide in starts, permits

Housing starts tumbled by 8% in June while building permits fell 3.7% as the industry continues to play catch-up with demand.

The total seasonally adjusted starts of 1.44 million were less than the 1.48 million Dow Jones estimate, though the percentage drop was less than the 9.3% forecast from May numbers that were revised sharply downward.

Permits were projected to decline 0.7%.

—Jeff Cox

Investors Intelligence bulls bounce back to 54.2% in latest survey, near late 2021 high

The percentage of bullish financial newsletter editors rallied back to 54.2% in the latest weekly Investors Intelligence survey, up from 51.4% last week. With bullishness in the vicinity of 55% and close to its highest since late 2021, investors should "prepare a more defensive strategy," II says.

Bearish opinion was little changed, dipping to 18.0% from 18.1%, staying at the lowest since January 2022, when stocks reached an all-time high.

Those advisors foreseeing a short-term correction, or pullback, in stocks fell to 27.8% from 30.5% last week.

The difference between bulls and bears widened to 36.2 points from 33.3 points a week ago and 36.6 points two weeks ago, the largest spread since Nov. 2021. As recently as mid-May, the bull-bear spread was less than 21 points. "A difference above +30% is the first sign of elevated risk," according to II.

— Scott Schnipper

Joby shares fall more than 6% in premarket on JPMorgan downgrade

Shares of Joby Aviation lost more than 6% in premarket trading after JPMorgan downgraded the electric aircraft company to underweight from neutral, citing its recent stock outperformance.

"We continue to expect that the ramp for eVTOL commercialization will take longer with a much more gradual ramp up than is currently embedded in bullish expectations," wrote analyst analyst Bill Peterson.

Read more on the call from JPMorgan here.

— Samantha Subin

Goldman Sachs misses on earnings

Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs undershot expectations for the second-quarter on Wednesday, despite the firm trying to level expectations beforehand.

Goldman reported an adjusted $3.08 per share and $10.9 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by Refinitiv forecasted $3.18 and $10.84 billion, respectively. Goldman stock slipped 0.4% in premarket trading.

— Brian Evans

Carvana shares soar

Carvana traded more than 27% higher after the used care retailer struck a deal to reduce its debt by $1.2 billion. The company noted the agreement will eliminate more than 80% of its 2025 and 2027 unsecured note maturities.

"This transaction significantly increases our financial flexibility by reducing our total debt, extending maturities, and lowering near-term cash interest expense as we continue to execute our plan of driving significant profitability and returning to growth," Carvana CFO Mark Jenkins said in a statement.

— Fred Imbert

Stocks have a 'terrific story to tell' right now, Vital Knowledge says

The market's recent upward move is likely to continue near term thanks to a favorable narrative for stocks, Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said in a note.

"Narratives matter more than fundamentals in the near-term and right now stocks have a terrific story to tell: robust earnings, cooling inflation, the end of monetary tightening, and firming growth," Crisafulli said. "Given that news flow should stay in this sweet spot for a while, it's hard to try and fight the upside momentum as bears throw in their towels and embrace the 'soft landing' scenario."

"Fundamentally, our concerns are twofold, valuation and (more importantly) disinflation-linked risks to EPS (the bullish macro/bearish micro dichotomy of disinflation was encapsulated perfectly by Ford's F150 Lightning price cut Monday morning)," he added.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

CNBC Pro: UBS names its 'best single stock ideas' in the U.S. right now

Swiss bank UBS has revealed a list of "key investment ideas," selecting U.S. stocks based on factors such as market conditions, economic trends and government policy.

"We focus on the equity asset class and highlight our best single stock ideas in the US tied to select messages," the bank's Chief Investment Office stated in a July 17 research note, adding that its ideas are updated monthly.

CNBC Pro subscribers can find out which stocks made the list here.

— Lucy Handley

U.S. Treasury yields fall as investors weigh global inflation outlook

Treasury yields declined on Wednesday as investors considered what could be next for economies and monetary policy around the world after countries including the U.K. posted inflation figures and awaited fresh data from the U.S. housing sector.

At 4:09 a.m. ET, the 10-year Treasury yield was down by over four basis points to 3.7483%. The yield on the 2-year Treasury was trading more than three basis points lower at 4.7171%.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Europe stocks open higher

European stock markets were upbeat in early trade, with the Stoxx 600 up 0.5% after U.K. inflation came in below forecast.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shot 1.4% higher as the British pound fell against the U.S. dollar and euro. The CAC 40 rose by 0.6% and Germany's DAX was 0.34% higher.

— Jenni Reid

UK inflation 7.9% in June, below expectations

U.K. annual consumer price inflation came in at 7.9% for June, below a consensus estimate of 8.2% and down from 8.7% in May.

Core inflation remained eye-wateringly high, at 6.9%, but was also below an expectation for it to hold steady at 7.1%.

Services annual inflation dipped from 7.4% to 7.2%.

The print will spark reassessments of whether the Bank of England will be tempted away from a second consecutive 50-basis point rate hike on Aug. 3, as it grapples with strong wage growth.

— Jenni Reid

New Zealand inflation slows for second straight quarter to 6%

New Zealand's consumer price index recorded a 6% growth year on year, the second straight quarter that the country's inflation rate has slowed.

This is compared to the 6.7% seen in the first quarter, and the 7.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

On a quarter on quarter basis, the consumer price index rose 1.1%, slightly lower than the 1.2% recorded in the same period the quarter before.

— Lim Hui Jie

Business sentiment weakens in Japan as Reuters Tankan survey falls in July

Confidence among large Japanese manufacturers fell in July, according to the Reuters Tankan survey, which measures business sentiment among large Japanese companies

This is the first time that the index has recorded a decline in six months, with the manufacturing index falling from +8 in June to +3.

The non-manufacturers index recorded a second straight month of decline, falling one point to +23.

A positive figure means that optimistic respondents outnumber pessimists, and vice versa.

— Lim Hui Jie

Stocks making the biggest moves after hours

Check out the companies making headlines after hours.

• Interactive Brokers — Interactive Brokers slid 5.2% after the brokerage firm's second-quarter earnings missed estimates. The firm reported adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share, weaker than consensus estimates of $1.40 per share, according to Refinitiv.
• J.B. Hunt Transport Services — J.B. Hunt Transport Services declined 2% after posting disappointing results. The transportation and logistics firm reported second-quarter earnings of $1.81 per share on revenue of $3.13 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected per-share earnings of $1.92 on revenue of $3.31 billion.
• Western Alliance Bancorp — The regional bank stock declined about 3% after Western Alliance posted second-quarter results. The company reported earnings of $1.96 per share, lower than the consensus estimate of $1.98 per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue for the quarter came in at $669 million, topping the forecast of $652 million. The bank reported deposits rose in the quarter.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Carvana shares drop after hours

Carvana shares dropped more than 10% in after hours trading. The online auto retailer said Tuesday it will post second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday, moving the date of its report up from Aug. 3.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures open lower

U.S. stock futures opened lower Tuesday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 11 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.05% and 0.11%, respectively.

— Sarah Min