USA stocks ticked up on Wednesday, just enough for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials to set record highs, with investors expecting upbeat earnings to keep the rally going.
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The Dow closed at a record high and joined the S&P 500 in posting fresh intraday historic highs.
Sterling rose as high as $1.3480, up more than 2 percent, before easing, while the euro climbed to a nine-day high of $1.1165 as traders began to trim their expectations of further European Central Bank stimulus this year.
The Dow is down 22 points (0.12%), the S&P 500 is down 4 points (0.19%) and the Nasdaq is down 15 % (0.31%). The Nasdaq was down 17 points to finish the day at 5,005. Those 32 companies are also averaging about 6 percent earnings growth on a year-over-year basis, but just 0.9 percent sales growth.
JPMorgan (JPM.N), the biggest US bank by assets, reported a quarterly revenue rise that beat estimates by a large margin, sending its shares up 1.7 percent in afternoon USA trading and boosting the S&P financial index.SPSY 0.8 percent.
In Asia, stock markets traded mixed on Thursday, taking cues from United States stocks which closed near the flatline but still managed to make it further into record territory.
Dow member JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, jumped 1.5 per cent after second-quarter earnings and revenues topped expectations, lifting other financials.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields hit a almost three-week high of 1.551%, partly on US data showing rising inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI ended up 24.45 points, or 0.13 percent, at 18,372.12.
At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded at 45.01 a barrel – a 3.7 percent decline, while global benchmark Brent crude was at 46.49 – a 4.2 percent fall.
Laura Lau, a senior portfolio manager at Brompton Group, said that investors are starting to realize that the economic fallout from Brexit will likely have little impact on the Canadian and USA economies, which don’t rely heavily on the U.K.as a trading partner.
Restaurant chain Yum Brands leaped nearly 3 per cent as it lifted its full-year operating profit growth forecast to at least 14 per cent from 12 per cent previously. The US dollar index traded lower, with the euro by $1.11 and the yen near 105.39 yen against the greenback.
REST OF EUROPE: Germany’s DAX was up 1.6 percent while the CAC-40 in France rose 1.3 percent. Apache lost 1.7 percent, Devon Energy 2.5 percent and Baker Hughes 1.2 percent. The dollar inched up to 104.79 yen from 102.77 yen. Brent crude, a standard for worldwide oil prices, rose $1.99 to $48.24 a barrel in London.
Procter & Gamble rose 1.3 percent to $87.04 after UBS upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral”.
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Precious and industrial metals prices were mixed. The August gold contract fell US$11.40 to US$1,332.20 an ounce, while September copper contracts were unchanged at US$2.24 a pound.
