Dow industrials on pace to register 7th straight record

The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 70 new highs and 28 new lows.

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.4 per cent to 2173.02 at 4pm in NY, its sixth all-time high in eight days.

LONDON – European shares mainly rose as technology stocks climbed after a bid for Britain’s ARM, enabling markets to offset concerns over unrest in Turkey that weighed on some travel and financial stocks. All 30 members of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index advanced more than 0.2 per cent. It was one of the biggest drags on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

Netflix slumped 13.6 percent after its subscriber numbers missed estimates.

PLAYED OUT: Hasbro was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500.

Philip Morris lost 3 per cent as the company’s quarterly earnings were hit by lower sales of cigarettes and tighter margins in part due to weaker currencies in its key worldwide markets. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 percent higher at 6,704. “Everything else is noise, and there’s so much noise”. The first meaningful support is at 2,120, the June high, while a Fibonacci price retracement of 40% from the June low to the July high renders support at 2,100.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: It was the latest better-than-expected reading on the US economy, joining reports earlier this month on retail sales and job growth. Home construction strengthened more in June than economists expected, particularly in the Northeast and West. But it also lowered its forecast for global growth this year, down to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent, due to the United Kingdom’s recent vote to leave the European Union. But by the time stock markets around the world opened for trading Monday, most reacted with a shrug, and the Turkish lira recovered some of its steep losses. Over the last 15 years, its average price-earnings ratio is 15.7.

“Only two companies are setting the tone of enterprise computing, Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS”, says Global Equities Research managing director Trip Chowdhry, referring to Amazon.com’s web services unit. Wall Street expects profit growth to resume in the second half of the year. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped by 1%.

All 10 major S&P indexes were lower, led by the materials sector’s 0.86 percent decline.

J&J shares rose 2.1 percent to a record high of $125.75, after the company’s profit topped estimates and it raised its forecast for the year. Price action is strong, with the 50-day simple moving average on an upward trajectory.

Also helping stocks was a reversal in oil prices, with Brent crude up almost 1 percent, after data shows weekly crude inventories fell slightly more than expected. The contract fell 49 cents to close at $45.45 a barrel on Tuesday.

Pressure was on the crude oil price, as glut concerns remain, while a rising USA dollar also impacted.

At the opening bell Wednesday, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded at $44.73 a barrel – a 1.5 percent loss, and global benchmark Brent crude was down 1.3 percent to $46.06.

Silver fell 39 cents to $19.61 per ounce, and copper fell less than a cent to $2.25 per pound.