CARRY ON: This past weekend’s attempted coup in Turkey, which began after most stock markets closed for trading Friday, initially triggered a jolt in the currency markets.
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In morning trading, the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average was up 40 points or 0.2%, and set a new intraday record high of 18,618.93. The Dow has logged sixth straight record closes. Investors are keeping a sharp eye on corporate earnings to see if other sectors can help sustain the momentum.
All 10 S&P sectors were negative in afternoon trading, with materials dropping 0.8 percent. About 10 stocks fell on the New York Stock Exchange for every seven that rose.
The S&P 500 posted 21 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 22 new lows. The Nasdaq Composite added 6 points, or 0.1%, to 5,035.
CLOSE BEHIND: Intuitive Surgical was the second-best performing stock in the S&P 500.
STUBBED: Cigarette maker Philip Morris International fell $3.67, or 3.6 percent, to $99.33 after reporting weaker quarterly results than expected. Smokers in North Africa, Japan, Argentina and elsewhere bought fewer cigarettes, leading to a 5 percent drop in shipments from a year earlier.
The red-hot Dow, riding an eight-session winning streak and bolstered by a strong earnings report and stock surge from index member Microsoft, jumped higher Wednesday as it pushed further into record territory. The health care giant rose $2.11, or 1.7 percent, to $125.25 after it raised its forecast for profits this year.
But many investors will be paying more attention to what companies have to say about upcoming earnings trends than how they did during the spring. “Everything else is noise, and there’s so much noise”.
HOUSING STRENGTH: Home construction strengthened more in June than economists expected.
The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that indicators are pointing to a pickup in the USA economy following a weaker-than-expected first quarter.
The stock rally also lost steam globally. It was one of the biggest drags on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
Earnings of S&P 500 companies are now estimated to have declined 4.7 percent in the second quarter, less than the 5 percent drop estimated earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. Wall Street expects profit growth to resume in the second half of the year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, rose to 1.59 percent from 1.56 percent late Tuesday.
Precious metals were mixed on Tuesday, with gold prices rising and silver declining. On the Nasdaq, 1,498 issues rose and 1,257 fell.
The price of crude oil fell 71 cents to settle at $45.24 per barrel.
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Brent crude LCOc1 settled down 30 cents, or 0.64 percent, at $46.66 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $1.38 a gallon, heating oil edged up less than 1 cent to $1.38 a gallon and natural gas rose less than 1 cent to $2.73 per 1,000 cubic feet. The euro rose to $1.1068 from $1.1063, and the British pound rose to $1.3260 from $1.3206. The dollar rose to 106.69 Japanese yen from 106.09 yen.
