Nasdaq, S&P 500 rise on inflation-led selloff as Disney losses weigh on Dow

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rebounded on Thursday from two days of inflation-driven selloff, but losses in Walt Disney due to slowing subscriber growth in its streaming video service weighed on the Dow.

A record-breaking rally in Wall Street’s main indexes had come to an end earlier this week as recent inflation reports suggested that the current spike in prices will take longer to cool amid snarled global supply chains.

But Arthur Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York, said investors were able to look beyond the near term as “we just have more demand than supply.”

“That’s likely a good thing for future growth in earnings,” he said.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes rose in early trading, with consumer discretionary leading the gains.

Tesla Inc gained 1.4% to claw back some ground lost in its 12.6% drop earlier this week, even after filings showed Chief Executive and top holder Elon Musk had sold about $5 billion of the stock over recent days.

Stocks on Wall Street ended slightly higher on Monday, gaining early in the day as investors cheered passage of a U.S. infrastructure spending bill, but paring gains late as sliding Tesla shares weighed the indexes down. Fred Katayama reports.

Other mega-cap technology and communications stocks including Google-owner Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc rose between 0.4% and 0.8%.

Walt Disney Co dropped 8.0% to lead declines among Dow components, as it reported the smallest rise in Disney+ subscriptions since the service’s launch and posted downbeat profit at its theme park division.

At 9:53 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 51.75 points, or 0.14%, at 36,028.19, the S&P 500 was up 13.79 points, or 0.30%, at 4,660.50 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 134.58 points, or 0.86%, at 15,757.29.

Amazon-backed electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc jumped 9.8%, adding to the nearly 30% gain on its blockbuster trading debut.

Tapestry Inc rose 9.2% after the Coach handbag maker lifted its annual sales forecast, boosted by a strong rebound in demand for luxury goods.

Market participants were also watching developments around the nomination of the Federal Reserve Chair, with President Joe Biden still weighing whether to keep Jerome Powell for a second term or elevate Fed Governor Lael Brainard to the post.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.09-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.95-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and 51 new lows.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arpan Varghese and Aditya Soni)