The U.S. stock market traded relatively flat in Wednesday premarket trading but turned into the green later. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded above 23,000 and hit a record high. The Dow was up 0.6%, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 0.10%, and the Nasdaq traded 0.04% up.
Strong earnings from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM, Financial) contributed to the Dow's jump. Shares have inched up more than 9% on the back of the company reporting its financial results for the third quarter. The company posted EPS of $3.30 on revenue of $19.15 billion, which was lower by 0.4% than the figure reported a year earlier. Moreover, the company managed to beat the EPS expectations by 2 cents, and revenue also beat by $550 million.
Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO, said, "In the third quarter we achieved double-digit growth in our strategic imperatives, extended our enterprise cloud leadership and expanded our cognitive solutions business." She also highlighted the IBM's new z Systems mainframe, which attracts clients for its security capabilities.
Forward looking, the company expects operating (non-GAAP) diluted EPS of at least $13.80 and GAAP diluted EPS of at least $11.95.
Gainers
- Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS, Financial).
- Assurant Inc. (AIZ, Financial).
- Anthem Inc. (ANTM, Financial).
- Morgan Stanley (MS, Financial).
- Davita Inc. (DVA, Financial).
- Express Scripts Holding Co. (ESRX, Financial).
Losers
- Electronic Arts Inc. (EA, Financial).
- Allergan PLC (AGN, Financial).
- Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG, Financial).
- Viacom Inc. (VIAB, Financial).
- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH, Financial).
- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).
- CF Industries Holdings Inc.”‹ (CF).
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded higher with all the main indexes in green zone.
In Asia, markets closed higher, too. Only the India’s BSE Sensex closed down 0.08%:
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
