Wall Street opens mixed, Nasdaq hits record high on tech rally

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day on a mixed note despite today’s upbeat macroeconomic data releases. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing nearly 1% on the day while the S&P 500 was down 0.25% and the Nasdaq Composite was rising 0.6%.  

Upbeat earnings figures from tech-giants Microsoft and Facebook boosted the S&P 500 Communication Services and Technology indexes, which were up 1.2% and 0.5% respectively, at the time of press. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose to a fresh record high of 8150 points in the first minutes following the opening bell and was last at 8130 points.

On the other hand, the S&P 500 Industrials and the Materials indexes are both losing more than 1% to weigh on the DJIA and the S&P 500 following the dismal tone in the first quarter earnings report of 3M.  

Today’s data from the U.S. showed that durable foods orders in March increased by 2.7% following February’s 1.1% drop and surpassed the market expectation of +0.8% but was largely ignored by the stock markets.