NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix, Oracle and other technology stocks are lifting U.S. Indexes Wednesday as their profits pile higher and excitement builds around the moneymaking prospects of artificial intelligence.
The S&P 500 was up 0.8% in midday trading and on track to surpass its all-time high set early last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 136 points, or 0.3%, as of 11:55 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% higher.
Netflix helped lead the way after it said live events like football games and a Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight helped it add nearly 19 million subscribers during the latest quarter. It also reported stronger profit than analysts expected and said it’s raising subscription prices in the United States and other countries. Netflix jumped 11.1%.
The streaming giant joined a lengthening list of companies that have topped analysts’ profit expectations for the end of 2024. Such results support their stock prices and counteract the downward push they’ve felt from rising Treasury yields in the bond market.
The rising yields, which were caused in part by worries about stubborn inflation and the U.S. Government’s swelling debt, had knocked down stocks and halted their record-breaking run that carried through 2024, at least briefly.
Procter & Gamble rose 2.9% after the company behind Charmin, Crest and Pampers reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It also said it’s sticking with its financial forecasts for the full fiscal year, even though rising commodity costs and the stronger value of the U.S. Dollar against other currencies are hurting its results.
Travelers climbed 4.2% after likewise topping analysts’ expectations for profit. The insurer said gains for its investments and growth in net written premiums helped it overcome losses created by Hurricane Milton, which plowed into Florida’s Gulf coast in October, and other catastrophes.
Some of the market’s most forceful pushes upward came from AI-related companies. Oracle climbed 6.5% to add to its 7.2% rise the day before, ahead of the expected announcement that came late Tuesday about Stargate, a joint venture the White House said will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of AI in Texas.
The partnership formed by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank will invest up to $500 billion. SoftBank Group Corp.’s stock in Tokyo rose 10.6%.
Other AI-related stocks also climbed, furthering their already fantastic run. Nvidia, the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rose 3.9%. Its stock is above $146 after sitting below $18 just two years ago.
They helped offset a 4% drop for Textron. It reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but its revenue fell short of forecasts. The company behind Bell helicopters and Cessna airplanes also gave a forecast for profit for this upcoming year that fell short of some analysts’ expectations.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe after finishing mixed in Asia.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.60% from 4.57% late Tuesday. It had been largely regressing since an encouraging update on inflation last week, but it’s still well above where it was in September, when it was below 3.65%.
Strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute say they expect rates to stay higher for longer for a wide range of reasons, including an aging workforce and very high levels of debt for the U.S. Government.
“Investors are demanding more compensation for the risk of holding long-term bonds, driving the term premium to a decade high,” according to the strategists led by Jean Boivin.
For stocks to remain resilient and keep rising despite the bite of high interest rates, companies will need to keep delivering solid profit growth, and Boivin said he sees encouraging signals.
In the cryptocurrency market, which has surged amid hopes that President Donald Trump will make Washington friendlier to the industry, bitcoin was below $104,000. It had set a record record above $109,000 on Monday. Some sourness is lingering after Trump and his wife launched meme coins, which critics said looked like an unseemly cash grab.
