The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 150 points and U.S. markets are mixed to end the trading week.
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The blue-chip Dow is down 0.30% in early trading on July 18, while the benchmark S&P 500 index is up a slight 0.03% and at a new all-time high of right around 6,300 points. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite index is also up slightly at 0.01% to begin the day on Wall Street.
Markets continue to get a lift from mega-cap technology names as shares of Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN) are all in the green to begin the trading action on July 18. The tech sector is rallying despite shares of streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) falling 5% after its second-quarter financial results.
While Netflix beat Wall Street forecasts on the top and bottom lines, the company’s guidance disappointed analysts and investors.
Decent Week
Despite the mixed performance on Friday, the major U.S. indices are on pace for a winning week. The S&P 500 is up 0.8% over the past five days, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow have advanced 1.8% and 0.2%, respectively.
Corporate earnings are expected to continue driving market performance in the days ahead. So far, about 60 S&P 500 companies have posted second-quarter results. Of those, 86% have beaten analyst expectations, giving a boost to investor sentiment.
Notable companies that have beaten Wall Street’s targets include PepsiCo (PEP), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Interactive Brokers (IBKR), whose share price is up 10% a day after the trading platform reported a strong Q2 print.
Is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust a Buy?
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 504 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 427 Buy, 71 Hold, and six Sell recommendations issued in the last three months. The average SPY price target of $679.22 implies 8.62% upside from current levels.
