Stocks move higher as banks, industrial companies recover

Stocks were edging higher on Wednesday, helped by a recovery in banks and industrial stocks. Bond yields were steady after rising earlier this week.

Investors continue to turn their attention to Washington, where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke before the Senate about the government's stimulus efforts to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.2% as of 1:19 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 191 points, or 0.6%, to 32,614. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1%.

Bank stocks, which took a beating on Tuesday, were among the best performers. Banks have been volatile the last couple of weeks as investors try to gauge the impact of higher interest rates on the U.S. economy. Higher interest rates can slow economic momentum, but they also allow banks to charge more for loans.

Bank of America rose 0.9% and JPMorgan Chase rose 1.4%.

Technology stocks were modestly lower, pulling the technology-heavy Nasdaq down compared to the other indexes. Apple was down 1.3% while Facebook fell 2.2% and Microsoft fell 0.4%.

GameStop sank 19.5% after reporting results that missed Wall Street’s forecasts, though the stock is still up nearly eightfold since the beginning of the year after it became a social media darling for a swarm of online investors. The company took no questions from investors on its quarterly conference call late Tuesday.

The pandemic remains a dominant topic for investors. Stocks fell on Tuesday after Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and the Netherlands extended lockdowns and imposed new travel and business curbs in response to spikes in infection. That followed similar moves earlier by Italy and France.

“There's a feeling that we’re not quite done with COVID-19...