Apple helps push Dow past 22,000
Being the world’s most valuable public company has its privileges, like getting almost all the credit for the latest stock market milestone. Apple made its biggest jump in six months Wednesday, helping send the Dow Jones industrial average above 22,000 points for the first time.
Some other tech companies, utilities and industrial firms rose too. That was just enough to take the Standard & Poor’s 500 index higher.
Much of the rest of the market was mixed, and most companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange fell.
Apple climbed 4.7% to $157.14, an all-time high. Its stock had slipped recently, in part because some investors were worried that production problems would delay the launch of the next iPhone, which would have hurt the company’s sales. But Apple’s revenue estimate beat expectations.
Movie theater operators and studios declined after AMC said U.S. box office receipts dropped 4.4% last quarter, and it expects this quarter to be difficult too. AMC is also taking a charge of $200 million because an investment lost value.
AMC shares dived 26.9% to $15.20. Cinemark Holdings sank 5.9% to $37.82. Walt Disney fell 1.8% to $108.67. CBS was down 1.9% to $64.81. Viacom slid 4.1% to $34.09.
Retailers also stumbled. Big 5 Sporting Goods sank 7.8% to $10.10 after it reported a weak profit and sales that fell short of forecasts. Car retailer AutoNation dropped 7.2% to $38.96; it had a disappointing quarter as prices for used cars fell. Shopping mall operator GGP slid 4.9% to $21.91 after it said it didn’t plan to sell itself. Nordstrom slid 5% to $46.49 on reports the Nordstrom family might not succeed in taking the company private.
Prescription drug distributor Cardinal Health sank 8.2% to $70.99 after it forecast a much smaller profit than expected. It said it’s being hurt by lower prices for generic drugs, smaller increases in prices of brand-name drugs and the loss of a contract with the Safeway grocery chain.
Genetic tools firm Illumina leaped 14.8% to $197.85. It raised its projections after demand for its NovaSeq genetic sequencing system was better than it expected.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 43 cents to $49.59 a barrel. Brent crude rose 58 cents to $52.36 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.64 a gallon, heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.66 a gallon, and natural gas stayed at $2.81 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Bond prices inched down. The yield on the 10year Treasury note rose to 2.27% from 2.25%.
Gold fell $1 to $1,278.40 an ounce. Silver fell 3 cents to $16.73 an ounce. Copper stayed at $2.88 a pound.
The dollar rose to 110.61 yen from 110.30 yen. The euro rose to $1.1860 from $1.1801.