Stocks edged higher as a vaccine trial lifted health care: Wednesday recap

Wall Street closed narrowly higher on Wednesday, with a breakthrough in cancer research doing much of the lifting. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 7,707.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, closing at 53,463.05, while the Nasdaq Composite finished little changed at 26,331.09 as weakness in chipmakers offset gains across the rest of the market. Small caps led. The Russell 2000, tracked by the IWM fund, climbed 0.5%, outpacing every large-cap gauge.

The sector map favored almost everything but technology. Health care was the runaway leader, up 3.5% and far ahead of the pack. Consumer discretionary added 1.9%, materials 1.4%, and consumer staples 1.1%. Technology sat alone at the bottom of the major groups, down 1.1%, with semiconductors leading the retreat. Industrials fell 0.9% and financials eased 0.6%. Six of the eleven S&P sectors rose.

The health-care surge had one source. Moderna and Merck said their personalized mRNA vaccine, given alongside Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda, reduced the recurrence of melanoma in a late-stage trial, the most advanced result yet for a technology that had struggled to prove itself beyond Covid-19. The companies reported that the combination kept the cancer from returning after surgery more often than the immune drug alone, in a study of more than 1,100 patients. Moderna shares more than doubled on the news, and Merck climbed as well, carrying the broader health-care group higher with them.

Technology moved the other way. One deal set the tone. Marvell granted Google the right to buy up to $12.2 billion of its stock as part of an agreement to develop custom artificial-intelligence chips, sending Marvell up about 10%. Broadcom, a larger rival in the custom-chip business, fell roughly 3% as investors weighed the new competition. The pair pulled the semiconductor complex, and the technology sector with it, into the red.

The Fed also weighed in. The central bank released the minutes of its late-July meeting, when policymakers held the benchmark rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% on a 9-3 vote. The record showed several officials had favored an increase, and many said further tightening would be needed if inflation failed to cool. Two regional presidents dissenting were joined by a third, the widest split on the committee in years. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.72%.

Breadth ran positive. The small-cap advance and the wide sector participation pointed to buying that reached well past the megacaps that usually set the tone. The Cboe Volatility Index fell to 14.89, down nearly a point on the day and comfortably below its long-run average. Losses stayed shallow. No major index moved even half a percent in either direction, apart from the small-cap gain, and the session read more like a rotation into new leadership than a broad push higher.

The week’s biggest earnings report still lies ahead. Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, reports quarterly results on Thursday, offering a fresh read on household spending after a mixed run of retail earnings this week. More companies in the sector follow. For now, the market’s attention stays split between the path of interest rates and the run of corporate news.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.