U.S. stocks were in positive territory on Wednesday, with investors pleased with the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained almost 400 points to 24,957, the S&P 500 index rose 0.99% to 2,666 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.24% to 7,115.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD, Financial) jumped more than 15% on Wednesday after the company announced fourth-quarter results. It reported revenue of $1.42 billion, reflecting 6% year-over-year growth, but fell $20 million short of analysts' expectations. Earnings of 8 cents per share were in line with estimates.
“In 2018 we delivered our second straight year of significant revenue growth, market share gains, expanded gross margin and improved profitability based on our high-performance products," President and CEO Lisa Su said. "Importantly, we more than doubled our EPYC processor shipments sequentially and delivered record GPU datacenter revenue in the quarter.”
By segment, Computing and Graphics' revenue was $986 million, an increase of 9% year over year due to strong sales of Ryzen processors. Sales in the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom division was $433 million, flat year over year.
Globally, the gross margin was 38%, up from 34% a year ago but down from 40% in the previous quarter.
Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2019, the company expects revenue to be approximately $1.25 billion, representing a decline of 24% year over year. The gross margin is projected to be 41%.
Gainers
- Stryker Corp. (SYK, Financial)
- Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX, Financial)
- Boeing Co. (BA, Financial)
- Robert Half International Inc. (RHI, Financial)
- Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY, Financial)
Losers
- Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR, Financial)
- Amgen Inc. (AMGN, Financial)
- Illumina Inc. (ILMN, Financial)
- Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM, Financial)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded higher. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 jumped 1.58%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.95%, Germany's Dax slid 0.33% and Spain's IBEX 35 declined 0.52%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.52%, India’s BSE Sensex was flat, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.40% and China's Shanghai Composite lost 0.72%.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
