U.S. stocks advanced and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs Wednesday after a mixed session a day prior. The number of cases and death toll from the coronavirus continued to rise, albeit at an apparently decelerating pace.

Click here to read what’s moving markets Thursday, February 20.

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4:04 p.m. ET: S&P 500, Nasdaq close at record highs

Here’s where the major indices had settled as of 4:04 p.m. ET:

S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) : +0.47% or +15.82 points to 3,386.11

Dow ( ^DJI ): +0.40% or +115.63 points to 29,347.82

Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) : +0.87% or +84.44 points to 9,817.18

Crude oil ( CL=F ): +2.40% or +1.25 to 53.30 a barrel

Gold (GC=F): +0.69% or +11.10 to 1,614.70 per ounce

3:00 p.m. ET: Investors are feasting on corporate debt

The federal government is hardly the only game in town on a borrowing binge. Investment grade debt is perched at record highs — and soaring demand (plus low interest rates/Fed liquidity) has pushed borrowing costs to new depths.

A chart from Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Slok tells the story:

View photos Investment grade yields at record troughs More

As of Q3 of last year, total corporate debt outstanding topped $10 trillion, according to Fed flow of funds data. What makes the data more interesting is that foreign governments have largely soured on U.S. denominated debt — but the slack is being picked up by domestic institutions.





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2:00 p.m. ET: Fed minutes show members viewed policy as “likely to remain appropriate for a time”

Federal Reserve officials viewed the current level of monetary policy as “likely to remain appropriate for a time,” reaffirming Federal Open Market Committee members’ wait-and-see stance for policy at present, according to minutes from the Fed’s January meeting released Wednesday.

According to the minutes, the Fed addressed points including the U.S. economy’s persistently below-target inflationary signals. Several participants suggested that inflation “modestly exceeding 2% for a period would be consistent with the achievement” of the Fed’s longer-run inflation objective, with such an overshoot helping the Fed hit that target symmetrically.

On the U.S. labor market, the Fed underscored that many of its participants felt the economy still had slack to bring more individuals into the workforce, even with the unemployment rate hovering near a 50-year low.

“Many participants pointed to the strong performance of labor force participation despite the downward pressures associated with an aging population, and several raised the possibility that there was some room for labor force participation to rise further,” the Fed minutes detailed.

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1:04 p.m. ET: Stocks jump, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hold near record highs

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each hit record intraday highs during Wednesday’s session, and held near these levels into the last three hours of trading.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 1:04 p.m. ET:

S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) : +0.61% or +20.63 points to 3,390.92

Dow ( ^DJI ): +0.57% or +165.9 points to 29,398.09

Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) : +0.97% or +93.93 points to 9,826.63

Crude oil ( CL=F ): +2.65% or +$1.38 to $53.43 a barrel

Gold (GC=F): +0.47% or +$7.50 to $1,611.10 per ounce

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10:26 a.m. ET: Royal Caribbean Cruises downgraded to Hold by Argus amid coronavirus

Argus downgraded shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises to Hold from Buy, citing negative impacts to bookings as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. The firm also lowered its 2020 earnings per share estimate to $10.10 from $10.80, and its 2021 EPS estimate to $11.25 from $11.70.

This came after Royal Caribbean last week canceled 10 additional cruises in Southeast Asia as a result of the virus, adding to eight previous cancellations. The company said this would result in a 65-cent reduction to 2020 EPS, and that cancelling its remaining Asian cruises in 2020 could cut EPS by another 55 cents.

“We note that the current cancellations, occurring in the first-quarter ‘wave period’ (bookings prior to the spring and summer), are likely to negatively impact net yields over the next 3-4 quarters,” Argus analysts wrote in the note.

Shares of Royal Caribbean are down about 17% for the year to date.

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10:20 a.m. ET: Disney+ to get India boost, Wells Fargo says

View photos PARIS, FRANCE - DECEMBER 26: In this photo illustration, the Disney + logo is displayed on the screen of a TV on December 26, 2019 in Paris, France. The Walt Disney Company launched its Disney + Streaming Service (Svod) in the United States on November 12, 2019. A month after its launch, Disney Plus has registered 24 million subscribers in the United States, which is very much higher than the forecasts and ambitions of the group, which targeted 20 million subscribers worldwide in 2020. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images) More