It was a mixed day for US stock markets with both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones finishing 0.1% higher but the Nasdaq down 0.2%.
The rotation back into ‘quality’ growth companies, including big tech names like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), continues to dominate with both hitting record highs, supporting the S&P 500.
Federal Reserve ‘ready to act’
Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that they expect June’s increasing inflation figure to be transitory, but remain willing to act if it appears to be getting out of control.
He highlighted the US’ similar plight to Australia where the economy and jobs markets are recovering, they both had a ‘long way to go’.
Loan write-backs dominate
Bank of America (NYSE: BOA) was the latest to report, falling over 2% despite tripling profit during the quarter to nearly US$9 billion.
The result was driven by writebacks of previous bad debt write-downs, which overcame a 4% fall in total revenue. Equity market revenue jumped 33%.
BlackRock reports
Index manager BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) also finished 3% lower after reporting a 10% increase in profit to US$1.4 billion as assets under management increased 30% and inflows into their ETF products jumped US$80 billion in three months, 80% of these were into active funds.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks fared overnight.
- Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) up 4.9%
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) up 2.4%
- Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) up 2.3%
- Mastercard (NYSE: MA) up 1.9%
- Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) down 4.7%
- Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) down 5.5%
- Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) down 7.4%
- Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) down 8.4%
Looking ahead, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to open lower on Thursday according to the latest SPI futures. To get your recap of the biggest stories, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.
