Facebook lifts Nasdaq; Dow edges down

New York: Strong Facebook earnings boosted the Nasdaq early Thursday but failed to ignite a rally in the broad market, suggesting growing fatigue with a month- long stock rally. Facebook advanced 3.5 per cent after reporting that net profit surged 186 per cent to $ 2.05 billion on growing online advertising revenues. Still, “the broader market isn’t being moved by Facebook’s terrific earnings results,” said Briefing. com analyst Patrick O’Hare. “The lacklustre response is indicative somewhat of a tired market, which has good reason to rest a bit after launching into a 9.0 per cent rally” after the surprise British vote to leave the European Union. About 40 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,451.76, down 0.1 per cent. The broad- based S& P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent to 2,167.56, while the tech- rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.2 per cent to 5,151.94.