The Dow and the S&P 500 were little changed on Wednesday, easing after hitting fresh intraday records, as the boost to tech stocks from Microsoft’s results was curbed by a drop in energy stock as oil prices fell.
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Netflix’s shares tumbled over 13 percent Tuesday after investors reacted to disappointing subscriber numbers in its quarter two report. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 62, or 0.3 percent, to 18,621.
The S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.24 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,173.02 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 53.56 points, or 1.06 percent, to 5,089.93.
Johnson & Johnson rose 1.7 per cent after reporting second-quarter sales climbed 3.9 per cent to US$18.5 billion and lifting its full-year profit forecast.
The weakest areas of the stock market Tuesday were sectors that tend to be big dividend payers, such as utilities, which lost 0.5 percent.
The Dow and the S&P 500 have once again set new record highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has reached its best levels of 2016.
Treasury prices settled near session highs, as the 10-year yield slipped 3 bps to 1.56%.
S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.75 points, or 0.22 percent, with 169,001 contracts traded.
The S&P 500 index showed 42 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 86 new highs and 15 new lows.
The Nasdaq was the big victor on the day, climbing nearly 54 points, or.
In other quarterly reports, Morgan Stanley MS.N closed up 2.2 percent after its profit topped analysts’ estimates, rounding off upbeat results from the six biggest Wall Street banks.
USA stocks ended higher Wednesday, buoyed by a surge in tech stocks after a flurry of corporate earnings beat investors’ lowered expectations. J&J rose 2.1 per cent to a record high of US$125.75, while UnitedHealth was up 0.5 per cent. She acknowledges that investors are paying more for stocks now than in prior years, relative to how much profit companies are earning.
The yuan jumped as much as 0.28 per cent to 6.6780 per United States dollar amid speculation China’s central bank is trying to prevent the currency from weakening beyond 6.70, a threshold that was breached this week for the first time since 2010.
Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday as investors reassessed the global economy following the International Monetary Bank’s global growth cut. Murphy Oil fell 54 cents, or 1.8 per cent, to $30.46.
Materials and energy shares lagged as a rise in the USA dollar put pressure on oil and other commodities denominated in the currency.
VW CHEER: One notable riser in Europe, and one which helped Germany’s DAX rise, was Volkswagen, whose shares jumped after it revealed that its first-half earnings before charges related to its diesel-emissions scandal were “significantly higher” than market forecasts.
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CURRENCIES: The euro fell to $1.1004 from $1.1015 late Tuesday, and the British pound rose to $1.3162 from $1.3093. The dollar dipped to 106.06 Japanese yen from 106.12.
