US stock markets finished at all-time highs once again despite a soft finish to the week with the Dow Jones and Nasdaq up a paltry 0.04% on Friday.
The S&P 500 was the biggest contributor, adding 0.2% behind a strong earnings report from the Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE: DIS).
The consumer staples and real estate sectors led gains while the financials and energy sectors declined as a report showed a significant drop in consumer confidence to the lowest level since 2011 as the delta variant spread continues.
Over the week, the Dow Jones led the way up 0.9% with the S&P 500 gaining 0.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slightly lower.
Disney beats expectations
All eyes were on Walt Disney, however, which smashed expectations to report a US$918 million profit.
The group saw quarterly revenue increase by over 50% as the combination of its booming Disney+ streaming platform, reopening of theme parks and increasing sports coverage boosted advertising sales.
Disney+ has now reached 116 million users and is quickly catching Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) which sits at 209 million despite a decade of runway.
Disney’s theme park revenue exceeded expectations at US$4.3 billion, with television content including ESPN and ABC reporting a 15% jump in revenue as ad sales grew. Disney shares finished slightly higher.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks closed out the week on Friday.
- Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) up 14.1%
- eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) up 7.5%
- Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) up 4.0%
- Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) down 4.5%
- HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ) down 4.6%
- Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) down 5.5%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to open lower on Monday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.