Alphabet shares power S&P 500, Nasdaq; Amazon dips

FILE PHOTO: Traders wearing masks work,on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

(Reuters)


1 photo
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

NEW YORK (Reuters) — The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq climbed on Wednesday, lifted by heavyweight Alphabet's shares after its strong results, while investors counted on more fiscal stimulus to ride out the economic downturn.

Alphabet jumped 7% as it benefited from lockdowns that drove retail and other advertisers online.

The Google owner's shares pushed the communication services index 2.2% higher to an all-time high. Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were in the positive territory.

Amazon.com dipped 0.1% as Jeff Bezos' surprise move to step down as chief executive quashed optimism about bumper quarterly results. However, analysts were upbeat on the promotion of its cloud computing head to the top job.

About 83% of reports from S&P 500 companies so far have surpassed analysts' earnings expectations, with 97% of results from technology companies beating, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Wall Street's main indexes finished sharply higher for a second straight day on Tuesday in a broad-based rally as market participants digested talks over the next round of stimulus.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday will meet congressional Democrats preparing to advance his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan despite Republican pushback.

"Economic recovery is on the way and the market is still very focused on technology ... the focus will shift at some point in next couple of months to more value, recovery names and that's where the opportunity is," said Olivier Sarfati, head of equities at GenTrust in New York.

At 10:03 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 gained 13.23 points, or 0.35 %, to 3,839.54 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 98.05 points, or 0.72 %, to 13,710.83.

The price-weighted Dow Jones fell 0.08%, weighed down by a 2.4% fall in shares of Amgen Inc after the U.S. biotech forecast 2021 earnings below estimates and said it had paused or halted enrollment for clinical trials of three cancer drugs.

Video game retailer GameStop rose about 3%, clawing back some gains after nearly halving in value on Tuesday on the back of a social media-driven trading rollercoaster ride.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling a meeting of top officials, including from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, this week to discuss market volatility.

On the economic front, the ADP Report showed hiring by U.S. private employers rebounded by 174,000 in January after a drop in December. A more comprehensive jobs report is expected on Friday.

A separate ISM survey showed U.S. services industry activity raced to its highest level in nearly two years in January.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.4-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.7-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 158 new highs and two new lows.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021

Photos

Most recent Business stories

Related topics

BusinessU.S.
Devik Jain and Medha Singh

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
    Newsletter Signup

    KSL Weather Forecast

    KSL Weather Forecast
    Play button