S&P 500 Climbs to Record Closing High; IBM Weighs on the Dow

The S&P 500 boasted a grounds closing precocious and its seventh consecutive league of gains connected Thursday portion the Nasdaq was boosted by specified high-profile stocks arsenic Tesla Inc. and Microsoft Corp. but a tumble successful IBM shares weighed connected the Dow.

After hitting an intraday grounds the erstwhile time the Dow was successful the reddish for astir of Thursday’s league arsenic IBM fell 9.6 percent aft missing Wall Street estimates for quarterly gross arsenic orders successful 1 concern conception declined up of a spinoff adjacent month.

Among the S&P’s 11 large sectors, the biggest boost for the benchmark came from user discretionary stocks and the exertion index, portion vigor stocks were the biggest resistance arsenic crude lipid futures fell connected concerns astir demand.

“For the astir portion you’re dealing with a somewhat risk-off time with radical going backmost to much antiaircraft sectors” including large exertion companies, said Chris Zaccarelli, main concern serviceman astatine Independent Advisor Alliance successful Charlotte, North Carolina.

“You’re seeing lipid down a small spot contiguous truthful perchance there’s immoderate planetary maturation concerns. You’re seeing immoderate ostentation concerns arsenic well.”

However, the CBOE Volatility index, besides referred to arsenic Wall Street’s fearfulness gauge, closed astatine its lowest level since February 2020. Shortly aft that date, the volatility scale had climbed arsenic COVID-19 brought the planetary system to its knees.

The VIX’s debased level implies that investors bash not spot a large diminution oregon upswing for stocks up contempt wide concerns astir supply-chain problems hiking costs, according to Shawn Cruz, elder marketplace strategist astatine TD Ameritrade.

“The marketplace whitethorn beryllium saying the supply-chain issues that are driving up costs are going to beryllium transitory due to the fact that markets are discounting mechanisms,” pricing successful what investors expect to hap successful the future, Cruz said.

The strategist besides pointed to earlier information showing that the fig of Americans filing caller claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a 19-month debased past week, suggesting a tightening labour market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.26 points, oregon 0.02 percent, to 35,603.08, the S&P 500 gained 13.59 points, oregon 0.30 percent, to 4,549.78 and the Nasdaq Composite added 94.02 points, oregon 0.62 percent, to 15,215.70.

Analysts were expecting S&P 500 third-quarter net to emergence 33.7 percent year-on-year, with astir 100 institution reports successful truthful far, according to the latest information from Refinitiv.

Tesla was the Nasdaq’s biggest boost, rising much than 3 percent, arsenic investors digested the electrical car maker’s upbeat earnings, contempt a supply-chain warning.

American Airlines finished up 1.9 percent aft the institution posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, portion Southwest Airlines Co. fell 1.6 percent aft it said it expected existent 4th nett to stay elusive.

HP Inc. gained 6.9 percent arsenic brokerages raised their terms targets connected the banal aft the idiosyncratic machine and printer shaper forecast upbeat fiscal 2022 adjusted nett and raised its yearly dividend.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones connected the NYSE by a 1.22-to-1 ratio; connected Nasdaq, a 1.00-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 60 caller 52-week highs and nary caller lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 112 caller highs and 37 caller lows.

On U.S. exchanges 10.07 cardinal shares changed hands compared with the 20-day moving mean of 10.27 billion.

By Shreyashi Sanyal, Devik Jain, and Sinéad Carew