NEW YORK – Major Wall Street stock indices ended at records yesterday, concluding a solid week on expectations for more United States stimulus and an economic rebound fuelled by coronavirus vaccines.
All three major indices finished at all-time highs, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.5% to finish at 3,934.83, up 1.2% for the overall week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1% to 31,458.40, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index won 0.5% to 14,095.47.
Markets meandered through much of the week, but generally drifted higher following mostly good corporate earnings.
Much of the economic data has been weaker, but investors view that dynamic as lending further momentum to President Joe Biden’s stimulus proposal.
“We can see that Biden wants to move forward with his package quickly,” said Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Financial Services.
“We can also see more progress on coronavirus vaccines.”
Among individual equities, Disney dropped 1.8% after reporting strong growth in new subscribers for its streaming service, while its parks and recreation division continues to suffer amid Covid-19.
Disney reported a quarterly profit of just US$17 million (RM68.7 million) compared with US$2.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.
But, PayPal jumped 4.7% as the company released long-term growth targets that project annual revenues reaching US$50 billion or more in 2025, compared with US$21.5 billion last year. – AFP, February 13, 2021
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