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U.S. equity futures were flat in overnight trading on Wednesday after major averages hit record highs on inauguration day.
Dow futures rose 24 points. S&P 500 futures were up 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.15%.
Big US airline United plunged more than 2% in extended trading on Wednesday after missing the upper and lower lines of its quarterly results. The airline has warned that sales will continue to suffer in early 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
U.S. stocks hit record highs on Wednesday as the last batch of strong corporate earnings arrived, when Joe Biden was sworn in as commander-in-chief.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 250 points to close at a record high. Microsoft had the most positive impact on the Dow Jones, adding 52 points to the index.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.4% to an all-time high.
The Nasdaq Composite jumped nearly 2%, closing at a record high. The tech-heavy index was helped by a 16% rise in Netflix stock thanks to solid earnings from streaming giants and subscriber results.
The benchmark Russell 2000 small cap index jumped 0.44%.
Biden was sworn in as the 46th US president on Wednesday, succeeding former President Donald Trump. In an inaugural speech in which he called on Americans to reject divisive efforts and pledged to work for voters who did not support him, Biden said, “Democracy has prevailed.” Biden is expected to work on his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
Wednesday “might have less to do with the inauguration than with the start of a new earnings season and with investors taking advantage of recent performance to lighten the winners in favor of adding some underprivileged new era stocks which could lead a good quarter of results, ”said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group.
“Perhaps, this simply reflects a globally synchronized economic recovery spurred by an unprecedented stimulus and approaching vaccinations. With such a context, it can increase regardless of the president,” added Paulsen.
Profits season continues Thursday with Baker Hughes, Union Pacific and Citrix reporting before the bell. Intel, IBM and CSX report after the closing bell Thursday.
The Labor Ministry will release data on last week’s jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 925,000 Americans to have filed for unemployment last week, up from 965,000 the week before.
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