The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Wednesday and closed at a record high, and Wall Street's two other benchmark indexes also ended higher, weathering declines in megacap tech shares thanks to small-caps gains and financial shares buoyed by strong earnings.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 337.28 points, or 0.79%, to 43,077.70, the S&P 500 rose 27.21 points, or 0.47%, to 5,842.47 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 51.49 points, or 0.28%, to 18,367.08.
Market Movers
ASML was down 6.4%, extending losses of 16% from Tuesday. The manufacturer of chip-making equipment reported third-quarter orders that were well below Wall Street estimates and cut its forecast for sales in 2025. The news weighed on other chip stocks, such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, which declined 4.5% and 5.2%, respectively, on Tuesday.
In trading Wednesday, Nvidia was up 3.1%, while AMD dipped another 0.3%.
Morgan Stanley posted third-quarter earnings of $1.88 a share, beating analysts' estimates of $1.59. Net income rose 32% from a year earlier to $3.2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations for $2.6 billion. The company got a boost as activity picked up in investment banking. Shares of Morgan Stanley were up 6.5%.
Lucid Group Inc. shares slid 12% in after-hours trading as the electric-vehicle maker said it plans to sell 262.4 million shares of common stock in a public offering that would be worth about $860 million at today’s closing price.
Oklo and NuScale Power are Wednesday's top two gainers on the New York Stock Exchange, rose 41.97% and 40% respectively, after Amazon unveiled plans to jump in the race for nuclear energy to power its artificial intelligence operations.
Shares of biofuelmakers Gevo Inc. soared 54% after-hours and Calumet Inc. surged 19% after the companies were offered billions in financing for sustainable aviation fuel projects by the Biden administration.
United Airlines reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.33 a share, beating analysts' estimates of $3.17. Revenue at the carrier rose 2.5% to $14.84 billion, also topping expectations. United said revenue trends "improved as the industry reached an inflection point in the quarter with unprofitable capacity exiting the market." Demand also was strong, the company said. Corporate revenue increased 13% year over year in September. The stock was up 12%.
Abbott Laboratories rose 1.5%. The maker of healthcare products posted adjusted earnings of $1.21 a share in the third quarter, topping Wall Street estimates of $1.20.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group were up 16% after falling 9.7% on Tuesday, when trading was briefly halted because of volatility.
Novocure advanced 0.5% after the Food and Drug Administration approved Optune Lua, the company's wearable treatment for certain types of lung cancer.
Novavax tumbled 19% after the Food and Drug Administration put a clinical hold on its application for a combination Covid-19 and influenza vaccine and stand-alone flu vaccine. Novavax said the clinical hold was "due to a spontaneous report of a serious adverse event of motor neuropathy in a single CIC Phase 2 trial participant outside of the U.S. who received the vaccine in January 2023."
Cisco Systems was up 4.3% to $56.38 after analysts at Citi raised their recommendation on shares of the networking company to Buy from Neutral. They raised their target for the stock price to $62 from $52, saying the company is in position to benefit from the spread of artificial intelligence.
Market News
Alibaba to Offer Logistics Services From Rival JD.com
Alibaba will allow JD Logistics to provide services on its domestic e-commerce platforms, another step in dismantling the barriers that have long divided China's internet giants.
JD Logistics is now fully integrated into Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall platforms, giving merchants the option to use its services, JD.com said in a statement Wednesday.
China's consumer internet has been dominated by ecosystems built around big companies that blocked services offered by rivals. Merchants previously weren't able to offer JD Logistics as a delivery option when selling on the Taobao and Tmall platforms.
