Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on January 22, 2024 in New York City. The Dow Jones and S&P both hit all time highs with the Dow Jones closing over 38,000 points for the first time ever as stocks continue to rise.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Stocks rose Wednesday as Netflix led a broader rally among technology names, pushing the broader market to new heights.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.2%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.7%, on track to clinch a new all-time closing record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 126 points higher, or 0.3%.
Netflix shares surged 12% after the streamer said its total subscriber count hit an all-time high of 260.8 million. Revenue topped analysts’ estimates, as did current-quarter earnings guidance.
The earnings report “is a pretty decent tailwind,” said Charlie Ripley, senior strategist at Allianz Investment Management. More broadly, “people thought things were fairly balanced, or maybe even positioning for more downside risks, as growth in the economy or activity in the economy continues to decline. But what we’ve kind of seen is things have been more resilient.”
Elsewhere, Microsoft rose more than 1%, sending its market value above the $3-trillion level for the first time. The software stock joins Apple as the only two companies with a total market cap above that size.
Both gains added to mega-cap tech’s strong performance in 2024, which have propelled the S&P 500 to record highs and confirmed a new bull market. Communication services and information technology stocks boosted the broad index on Wednesday, with both sectors up more than 1%.
Beyond technology, AT&T slipped more than 2% on lower-than-expected earnings. Dupont De Nemours tumbled more than 11% after preannouncing weak fourth-quarter results and issuing disappointing first-quarter guidance.
Earnings reports will remain a focus of traders, with Tesla, Las Vegas Sands and IBM due after the bell. Of the more than 16% of S&P 500 companies that have reported quarterly financials thus far in the earnings season, over 71% have surpassed Wall Street expectations, according to FactSet.
