Wall Street Sets Record as Netflix Jumps and Biden Inaugurated

U.S. stocks closed at record highs on Wednesday as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th U.S. president. This is all while solid results from Netflix sparked a rally in shares of “stay-at-home” beneficiaries.

Shares of the world’s largest streaming service Netflix surged after it said it would no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies.

The rest of the FAANG group all jumped with earnings results due in the coming weeks. The NYSE FANG+TM index went up as well.

“It’s a tech outperformance day, which is pretty rare over the past two or three months as the cyclical rotation has kind of gotten underway,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He added a lot of the move could be traced to Netflix.

Netflix shares surging 14% today after reporting Q4 earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s projections and signaling at stock buybacks. $NFLX pic.twitter.com/3MUBYbjMkg

— Trading Nation (@TradingNation) January 20, 2021

“(Today was) just a reminder that the tech run had gotten extended… the FAANG names and some of the other S&P 500 tech names are still incredible operators and are going to be putting out incredible earnings quarters for the foreseeable future.”

Biden will waste little time turning the page on the Trump era, aides said, signing 15 executive actions in the afternoon on issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the economy to climate change.

“I’m not sure that the politics of inauguration day did much but certainly the expectation for a trillion-plus in stimulus,” Mayfield added.

Other Stocks

The Dow has gained about 57%, and the S&P 500 advanced about 68% since Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20, 2017, which compares with a 65% jump in the Dow and 75% gain in the S&P during the first term of the Obama administration.

Wall Street’s main indexes scaled record highs in the past few months. This is with the blue-chip Dow jumping about 13% since the presidential elections in November, as investors bet on a strong economic recovery in 2021 on the back of COVID-19 vaccine rollout and a bigger pandemic relief plan.

Nearly all of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in afternoon trading, with communication services, consumer discretionary, and technology among the biggest gainers.

Wrapping up results from major U.S. lenders, Morgan Stanley slipped. Despite posting a quarterly profit that blew past estimates driven by strength in its trading business.

The broader banks index declined for the third day.

Valuations

With stock market valuations sitting near a 20-year high, investors hope corporate results and profit outlooks will help them determine to what degree the valuations are justified.

Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 257.86 points, or 0.83%, to 31,188.38, the S&P 500 gained 52.94 points, or 1.39%, to 3,851.85, and the Nasdaq Composite added 260.07 points, or 1.97%, to 13,457.25.

Procter & Gamble Co raised its full-year sales forecast for a second time as it benefited from sustained coronavirus-driven demand for cleaning products. However, its shares fell after it warned that the pace of sales might slow as vaccines roll out.

UnitedHealth Group Inc dipped after the health insurer’s quarterly profit slumped nearly 38%. This was then weighed down by costs related to its programs to make COVID-19 testing and treatment more accessible for its customers.

(Reporting by Echo Wang; Additional reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Maju Samuel and Lisa Shumaker)

Related Articles

How to Relax With CBD

Best Face Masks Review On Amazon