U.S. Stock Market: Dow Jones and S&P 500 Index hit new closing highs again, boosted by Netflix's financial report and the technology sector

Three major indices rose for the sixth consecutive week

This week, the Dow rose by 0.96%, the S&P 500 rose by 0.85%, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.79%

Netflix surged as it is predicted that new users will continue to grow

The Dow rose by 0.09%, the S&P 500 increased by 0.4%, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.63%

Reuters, October 18 - The Dow and S&P 500 hit new closing highs on Friday, with the Nasdaq also closing higher, driven by a surge in Netflix's stock price due to profit growth and a general rise in tech stocks.

The three major Wall Street indices also easily achieved six consecutive weeks of gains, marking the longest weekly winning streak since the end of 2023.

This week, the S&P 500 rose by 0.9%, the Nasdaq rose by 0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 1%.

Netflix (NFLX.O) saw a significant increase of 11.1% in its stock price, reaching a new closing high. The streaming giant's addition of new users exceeded Wall Street's expectations and is expected to continue growing through the end of this year.

Several tech "Big Seven" companies saw gains, driving much of Wall Street's upward momentum this year.

After data showed a significant increase in new iPhone sales in China, Apple (AAPL.O) rose by 1.2%, while chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA.O) increased by 0.8% following a target price upgrade by Bank of America Global Research.

Netflix's rise boosted the communication services sector (.SPLRCL) by 0.9%, making it the top-performing sector among the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, while the information technology sector (.SPLRCT) rose by 0.5%.

"This is a 'what's not to like?' market," said David Waddell, CEO of Waddell & Associates, referring to positive economic data, declining inflation, and optimistic earnings and forecasts from U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 index (.SPX) rose by 23.20 points, or 0.40%, to 5,864.67 points; the Nasdaq index (.IXIC) increased by 115.94 points, or 0.63%, to 18,489.55 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose by 36.86 points, or 0.09%, to 43,275.91 points.

The Dow hit a new closing high for the fifth time in six trading days. However, American Express (AXP.N) limited the Dow's gains on Friday as the company's quarterly revenue fell short of expectations, causing a 3.1% drop in its stock price.

Financial companies have generally reported strong earnings so far this earnings season. However, the S&P bank index (.SPXBK) fell slightly by 0.1%, ending a five-week winning streak.

Optimistic earnings from financial companies and broadly positive economic data have helped the three major indices continue to rise in recent days.

However, due to high valuations, the S&P 500's forward price-to-earnings ratio is close to 22 times, coupled with high expectations for corporate performance and potential volatility around the U.S. election on November 5, the stock market is prone to corrections However, David Waddell of Waddell & Associates pointed out that strong corporate earnings may overshadow any political factors or concerns about overvaluation.

In recent days, small-cap stocks have attracted buying interest from investors, with both the Russell 2000 Index (.RUT) and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index <.SPCY> outperforming the three major indices this week. However, both of these small-cap indices saw slight declines on Friday.

The energy sector (.SPNY) was the only sector in the S&P 500 Index to decline, with a 0.4% drop, attributed to falling oil prices and a 4.7% drop in stock price after SLB (SLB.N) reported lower-than-expected earnings. As a result, oilfield service providers Baker Hughes and Halliburton (HAL.N) fell by 1.3% and 2.1% respectively.

The energy sector index was the worst-performing sector this week, dropping by 2.6%, as concerns about Chinese demand and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East led to a sharp 7% drop in U.S. crude oil prices.

CVS Health (CVS.N) fell by 5.2% as the company replaced CEO Karen Lynch with industry veteran David Joyner and withdrew its profit forecast for 2024.

This news also weighed on other health insurance companies, including Cigna (CI.N) and Elevance Health (ELV.N), with the latter falling by 3.1% to a near 15-month low.

Total trading volume on U.S. exchanges reached 10.62 billion shares, compared to the 20-day average daily volume of 11.56 billion shares