Bay Area technology stocks help markets edge higher

Tesla, Netflix and Roku led Bay Area stocks higher on Monday, and gave Wall Street a boost as investors shook off doubts about the prolonged effects the coronavirus crisis might have on the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up by 26 points, or 0.1%, to close at 23,749.76, and the S&P 500 rose by 0.4%, to finish at 2,842.74. Both stock-market gauges were in the red for most of the day due to concerns about how long certain industries might take to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Those fears were also stoked by legendary investor Warren Buffett, who over the weekend divulged that his Berkshire Hathaway holding company had sold all of its shares in air carriers United, American, Delta and Southwest due to the effect coronavirus has had on the industry.

But, the Nasdaq Composite Index, which includes many big-name local tech companies, rose early, and ended the day with a gain of 1.2%, at 8,710.71.

Tesla was among the advancers, as the electric carmaker’s shares rose 8.5%, to close at $761.19, just days after Chief Executive Elon Musk let loose with a tweetstorm in which he said Tesla’s stock price was too high, and that he was going to sell nearly all of his material possessions. Those tweets helped shave more than 10% off of Tesla’s share price on Friday.

Netflix climbed 3.1%, to $428.15 a share, and Roku shares surged by 9%, to $124.30, in the wake of some industry analysts saying that the streaming TV companies are likely to see more visitors, and usage, as stay-at-home orders remain in effect around much of the country.

And some investors and fund managers remained convinced that there could be more bad news ahead for the economy as the pandemic continues.

“I believe the worst is yet to come as this GDP (gross domestic product) number only captures the first few weeks of lockdowns of the economy,” said Jeffrey Sica, director of Circle Squared Alternative Investments, “And I am still concerned that when the economy opens, consumers will become afraid of a second wave of COVID without a vaccine.”

Around the Bay Area, and the state, the pace of new coronavirus cases continued to slow, with 1,254 new cases statewide reported on Sunday, down 14% from Saturday. The number of deaths across California also fell to 23 on Sunday from 98 on Saturday.

Among other companies in the region, Apple shares rose 1.4%, to $293.16, Facebook was up by 1.4%, at $205.26 a share, HP edged up by 1.3%, to $14.90 a share, Twitter shares rose 1.4%, to $28.23 and AMD climbed 5.4%, to $52.56.