“Microsoft has for a long time has been one of the bellwether stocks for the USA – it is reflective to some extent of the whole economy and can feed through”, said Frances Hudson, an Edinburgh-based global thematic strategist at Standard Life Investments.
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Halliburton dropped 1.6 percent after reporting a loss of $3.2 billion in the second quarter, due mainly to a $3.5 billion payout to Baker Hughes after the Justice Department blocked Halliburton’s proposed takeover of its rival.
US stocks rose Wednesday, led by gains in technology shares.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 8 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,159 at 1:45 p.m. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30, or 0.2 per cent, to 18,590.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 12.75 points, or 0.28 percent, on volume of 20,979 contracts. She acknowledges that investors are paying more for stocks now than in prior years, relative to how much profit companies are earning. Even though the expectations bar is set low, as more and more companies manage to beat forecasts and improve their outlook, investors are thinking that “this is the trough and going forward we will see an improvement”, he said.
“Only two companies are setting the tone of enterprise computing, Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS”, says Global Equities Research managing director Trip Chowdhry, referring to Amazon.com’s web services unit.
On the other hand, gold stocks came under pressure on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 6.3 percent. Abbott Laboratories and Intuitive Surgical also gained on results that exceeded forecasts.
The maker of robotic-assisted surgical systems reported revenue and earnings per share that both topped analysts’ expectations. That’s what usually happens, because analysts tend to lower their earnings forecasts for companies as each reporting season approaches.
Investors betting on central-bank action have helped push riskier assets such as stocks higher in recent weeks after the U.K.’s surprise vote to leave the European Union in June triggered a market selloff.
The stock gave by far the biggest lift to the major indexes and the tech sector.
With the S&P 500 bellwether closing up 0.4% at 2,173 – a fresh record high – as well as hitting a fresh intraday record high of 2,175.63, the technology sector did much to power that latest historical achievement.
The market’s calm has also meant less demand for gold and Treasurys, traditional go-to investments during periods of fear. The CBOE Volatility Index, a measure of market turbulence known as the VIX, fell 1.7 per cent today to 11.77, the lowest since August 2014. The Dow Jones Software Index surged up by 2.9 percent to its highest levels in over sixteen years.
Twenty-First Century Fox fell 75 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $27.00 amid widespread reports that its Fox News business will soon cut ties with its head, Roger Ailes, following allegations of sexual harassment.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to the latest earnings news from big-name companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Morgan Stanley (MS).
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Crude oil turned positive after the weekly release on US stocks from the Energy Information Administration showed a decline.
