Today the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ Composite all hit record highs.
Likely cause? The peaceful inauguration of Joe Biden as President? Yesterday’s report of blow out gains in subscribers in the fourth quarter from Netflix (NFLX)?
While the sigh of relief that the country wasn’t enveloped in another wave of violence at the 46th President took the oath of office certainly played a role, my vote on causation today goes to yesterday’s news from Netflix that the company added 8.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, far ahead of Wall Street projections for 6.03 million added subscribers. Netflix shares closed up 16.85% today.
The Netflix news lit a fire under all its big tech FAANG peers and beyond. Alphabet (GOOG) was up 5.36% at the close. Amazon (AMZN) was ahead 3.65%. Apple (AAPL) added 3.29%. Facebook (FB) gained 2.47%. And Microsoft (MSFT) closed 3.65% higher.
What I’d call the secondary group of technology momentum favorites soared too. Veeva (VEEV) gained 3.46% by the close. Teladoc (TDOC) moved up 6.02%. Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) added 2.59%.
On the day while the S&P 500 was up 1.39% and the Russell 2000 small cap index 0.44%, the NASDAQ Composite gained 1,97% and the NASDAQ 100 increased by 2.31%.
The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) closed ahead 1.98% on the day. In contrast the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF lost 0.42%
A group of stocks that have in recent days taken on the color of Biden stocks–rising when the incoming administration talks up its stimulus and renewable energy plans and falling when Biden initiatives look to be delayed–was up only modestly today or not at all. Solar momentum plays such as Solar Edge Technologies (SEDG), Enphase (ENPH), and Sunrun (RUN) were up 0.72%, down 0.93% and down 4.34%, respectively. Lithium producer Albemarle (ALB) dropped 2.73%. The VanECK Low Carbon Energy ETF (SMOG) slipped 0.23%.
