- S&P 500 looks to extend winning streak to fifth day.
- Upbeat quarterly earnings figures boost AIZ and DIS on Wednesday.
- Arista Networks Inc (ANET) shares are down more than 10%.
Major equity indexes started the day in the positive territory on Wednesday and continued to push higher fueled by stimulus hopes and upbeat macroeconomic data releases from the US. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) touched its highest level since late February at 3,330 before retreating slightly and was last seen gaining 0.55% on a daily basis at 3,324.
Although the ADP’s monthly data showed that the private sector added only 167K jobs in July, June’s reading got revised up by 2 million to 4.3 million. Additionally, the ISM Services PMI improved to 58.1 to show expansion in the service sector’s business activity at a robust pace.
S&P 500 top movers
After the closing bell on Tuesday, Assurant Inc (AIZ) reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.75 per share for the quarter ended in March and beat analysts’ estimate for a loss of 64 cents per share by a wide margin. As of writing, AIZ was trading at $123.82 and was up 15.6% on the day as the top-gainer
Additionally, Walt Disney Co (DIS) announced that quarterly adjusted earnings were 8 cents per share for the quarter ended in June. According to Reuters, the mean expectation of 25 analysts for the quarter was for a loss of 64 cents per share. At the moment, DIS is trading at its highest level since February 21st at $127.65, gaining 8.9% on a daily basis.
On the other hand,
Arista Networks Inc (ANET) shares are down 10.6% on the day at $235.97. The company reported a 11.1% decline in annual revenue to $540.57 million. Although this reading came in better than analysts’ estimate of $529.73 million, it failed to help ANET gain traction.