Games help energize stocks
NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes finished with small gains Wednesday as video game makers gave technology companies a boost and household goods companies also rose.
A recent decline in interest rates, however, continued to put pressure on banks.
“Grand Theft Auto” and “NBA2K” maker TakeTwo Interactive Software soared 10.6 percent after it reported better-thanexpected sales, while Activision Blizzard jumped 5.9 percent after it said the newest “Call of Duty” game had a strong debut over the weekend.
Technology companies rose for the 10th day in a row. Technology firms have climbed almost 40 percent in the last 12 months including Wednesday’s gains.
Companies that make and sell household goods, like Colgate-Palmolive and Walmart, gained ground as well. Energy companies declined and banks fell again as interest rates have weakened since late October, which makes mortgages and other loans less profitable.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite all closed at record highs.
It’s now been a year since Donald Trump was elected president in an upset, and the S&P 500 has jumped 21 percent. That’s more than stocks have risen after many recent presidential elections, although it trails the market move after Barack Obama was reelected in 2012. Investors felt stocks would do well under a Trump administration, and so far they have, but there have been some major surprises. The biggest is that stocks in other regions, including Europe, Japan and less developed countries, have done ever better.
“Investors were right to be optimistic post-election, but not because of politics,” said Jason Draho, the head of American tactical asset allocation for UBS Wealth Management.