Up, up and away as Wall Street notched up fresh record highs on Wednesday, and after-hours earnings from online auction house eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) set the market up for a higher start the next day.
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.
Second quarter earnings from Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) boosted Wall Street tickers, as did eBay Inc. The latter lifted its full-year revenue forecast above analysts’ expectations, sending shares in the company 6.1% higher to $28.63 in after-market trading.
The news came out with better-than-expected second-quarter results, with revenues for the second quarter at $2.2bn, up 6% from the same period a year ago.
The company lifted its full-year revenue forecast and now expects sales in the range of $8.85bn to $8.95bn, up from its previous estimates for $8.6bn to $8.8bn. This also topped analysts’ estimates for $8.81bn.
Unsurprisingly, the technology sector was the biggest gainer on the day, advancing 1.4%.
But there was also good news in the pharma sector, where beleaguered Valeant (NYSE:VRX, TSE:VRX) had the nod from the FDA for its tablet form of its "Relistor" drug, which treats certain types of constipation. Read more.
Valeant shares closed up 4.4% at $24.57 and advanced a further 0.1% after hours.
Midsession
US shares were higher at midsession Wednesday after a clutch of upbeat earnings reports and buoyant oil prices in the face of draining fuel stockpiles.
The S&P 500 bellwether was up 0.5% at 2,174 after Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 6.4% to $56.46 when it reported with its second quarter earnings a sharp growth in its commercial cloud computing business which beat Wall Street's revenue expectations
Buoying the bourse, the West Texas Intermediary futures changed hands at $44.90, up 0.6% after stockpile figures from the US Energy Department showed a 2.3mln drain on crude stores, echoing the trend suggested by Tuesday’s numbers from the American Petroleum Institute (API) which also revealed a 2.3mln drop.
Despite the stats now showing nine consecutive weeks of stockpile draw downs, crude prices have hitherto always fallen as the drains have been less than forecast and also as supplies have been rising in the international market.
But a few months of better prices have improved the outlook for some major industry players. US oil field services giant Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), one of the world’s biggest frackers, had some guarded optimism on Wednesday as it flagged expectations for a ‘modest uptick’ in the American rig count (the industry measure of new activity). Halliburton shares, however, didn’t share the optimism as they were down 1.3% at $44.41.
The S&P Midcap 400 was up 0.6% at 1,551 and led by Polaris Industries Inc (NYSE:PII) up 9.2% to $95.04. The S&P Smallcap 600 was up 0.8% to 742 and led by Medidata Solutions (NASDAQ:MDSO) up 15.2% to $53.82 after the company reported record subscription revenue of $96.8mln, an 8% sequential and 15% year-over-year increase in the second quarter, and reiterated full-year 2016 total revenue and profitability guidance.
Pre-Open
US shares are poised to head upwards as traders await more big earnings and weekly crude stockpile data.
The benchmark Dow Jones has been climbing for the last eight consecutive days and now at the highest level ever.
Overnight trading was muted in Asia, while in London now, FTSE 100 is up over 14 points.
Yesterday (Tuesday) , US shared closed lower on Tuesday as the record high trend stalled on the back of wobbly corporate earnings and Netflix dragged the market lower.
The S&P 500 index ended down 0.14% at 2,163 – killing off more than a week of record highs - while the S&P Midcap 400 was down 0.2% at 1,542 and the S&P Smallcap 600 shed 0.6% to 736.
The Dow Jones finished 25 higher at 18,599 and the Nasdaq was down 16.
Futures trading today has the Dow Jones up 60 points and the tech heavy Nasdaq up 14. The S&P500 is up 6.25 points.
In focus on the company front today, Microsoft NASDAQ: MSFT) shares are set to head north at the open after the computer titan reported better-than-expected quarterly results showing its big bet on cloud computing is paying off. In pre-market, they are 4.77% ahead at US$55.62.