A 1.4% rise in technology stocks led the gains in broad market index while four out of ten main sectors closed in the red, led by modest losses in consumer staples and utilities.
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Wall Street gained on Wednesday and the S&P 500 and Dow industrials set fresh records, as Microsoft’s strong results boosted the indexes and marked the latest sign that United States corporate earnings season may be less dour than feared.
Dow-member Microsoft vaulted 5.2% after reporting a better-than-expected $3.1 billion in fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that showed strong growth in its cloud computing businesses. That helped send other technology stocks higher.
In other quarterly reports, Morgan Stanley closed up 2.2 per cent after its profit topped analysts’ estimates, rounding off upbeat results from the six biggest Wall Street banks. But the Standard & Poor’s 500 index pulled back from its record high, finishing 0.1 percent lower at 2,163.78.
At 11:04 a.m. ET (1504 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 15.51 points, or 0.08 percent, at 18,579.52.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks shares in 45 nations, rose 0.63 points or 0.15 percent, to 413.45. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 2.4 basis points to 1.582%.
NYMEX crude oil futures fell 1.39 percent on the session to $44.61, while Brent futures lost 0.62 percent to $46.67.
That drove the technology sector up 1.4 percent, much more than the rest of the market.
Stocks have moved mostly higher in early trading on Wednesday, more than offsetting the pullback seen in the previous session.
Earnings reports from a handful of major banking institutions also motivated the market Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 percent higher at 6,704.
ANALYST QUOTE: “Global stocks have enjoyed an extended period of gains which have been fuelled by optimism over central banks intervening to quell the financial turmoil”, said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM.
RECORDS ON REPEAT: If the day’s gains hold, the S&P 500 and Dow will again set record highs. That sent Japan’s benchmark and the US dollar higher against the yen. The price of gold rose $3.10, or 0.2 percent, to $1,332.40 per ounce. Fox News is a key profit maker for the company.
Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX – news) was down 1.6 percent ahead of the expected release its quarterly results after the close, weighing on the tech sector as well as on the major US indexes.
A LOW BAR: Analysts came into this earnings reporting season with low expectations, forecasting a roughly 5 percent drop for S&P 500 companies from a year earlier.
“If the US market is at an all-time high and you have a day of waiting for news, investors trim exposure”, said Ben Kumar, investment manager at Seven Investment Management LLP, which oversees 10 billion pounds ($13 billion).
CURRENCIES: The dollar edged lower to 106.08 yen from 106.22 in late trading Monday but was still hovering near its highest level in almost a month.
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In currency markets, the dollar fell 0.51% against the pound but rose 0.43% versus the yen and 0.09% versus the euro. Brent crude, the worldwide benchmark, rose 15 cents to $47.32 a barrel.
