Negative reactions to earnings report after the close on Wednesday (Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) coupled with Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) this morning set the tone for Wednesday’s session.
After being red for almost the entire premarket session, the bulls did push the index into the green by a few handles in the first hour, but not for long. After nearly reaching 4500, the index mounted another rally around 1:00 PM, but stalled near Wednesday’s closing price of 4519.
Heading into the final hour, the index was making another attempt to make it the thirteenth winning session in the last fifteen and thanks to mega cap technology stocks, it did.
The end result was a gain of four handles at the closing price 4523.25. That marks the highest closing price for the index since mid-September.
Among the top components, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the biggest gainer. The issue made a new all-time high for the third day in a row. More importantly, it posted a new all-time closing high by advancing $6.50 or 1.8% at the closing price of $376.17.
This performance was much better than the cash index’s slight advance of 0.12%.
In contrast, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), which was the biggest gainer in the last two sessions, found itself on the other end, being the biggest loser. The catalyst being a tweet from Gordon Johnson, a perennial bear on the issue, revealing Tesla cars being offered at discounts in many European countries. For the session, the issue swooned $9.25 or 3.8% at the closing price of $233.59.
