Dow Closes Near Record High as Profits Fuel Price Rise by Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow closed slightly fewer record highs on Friday as bullish quarterly earnings and the strength of technology eclipsed concerns that the surge in Covid-19 cases poses to the economic recovery.

The rise of 1.37%, or 399 points to close at 29,476, just below its record close of 29,569 on February 12. February 12 rose 1.36%, while adding 1.02%.

As the curtain on quarterly results closes, a wave of better-than-expected reports from a series of companies, including Disney and Cisco supported investor sentiment.

The Dow Walt Disney (NYSE 🙂 component reported a narrower-than-expected loss as well as subscriber numbers that exceeded Wall Street expectations, increasing its shares by more than 2%.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ :), meanwhile, beat Wall Street estimates as the work-from-home trend continued to drive product demand. Its shares rose 7%.

DraftKings (NASDAQ 🙂 rose about 4% after rolling out better-than-expected forecasts as the return of major sports boosted customer engagement and quarterly results.

Sentiment in semiconductor stocks was boosted by upbeat comments from Applied Materials (NASDAQ 🙂 after better than expected third quarter results. RBC has raised its price target on applied materials for $ 82, from $ 75, citing the “solid beat and raise”. The bank said it expected to see “the company gain market share and exceed consensus expectations for fiscal 2021” amid a surge in memory production.

The rise in the semi-finals added to gains in the broader tech sector as Fab 5 shares moved away from session lows.

Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 and Amazon.com (NASDAQ 🙂 were pretty much unchanged that day, while Facebook (NASDAQ :), Alphabet (NASDAQ :), and Microsoft (NASDAQ 🙂 traded above.

The rise in the market as a whole follows concerns about the impact on the economy of growing restrictions aimed at curbing the spike in cases where New York City seeks to close schools as early as next week.

Cases in the United States surpassed the record 160,000 cases on Thursday, while hospitalizations reached a record 67,096, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Separately, Comcast (NASDAQ 🙂 hit a record high, up 2%, after the company said its venture capital arm would be folded into the business to focus on strategic investments.

Nio (NYSE :), meanwhile, fell nearly 8% after short-selling fund Citron Research suggested it was time to take profit on the stock, citing Tesla’s move (NASDAQ 🙂 to reduce its price on the Y model in China and an investor base unlikely to remain in place.