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Corporate earnings continued to dominate the market's motion Wednesday amid a lull in economic data and persistent but nonetheless slow progress on the Democrats' social spending plan.
A pair of mega-cap stocks threw their weight around today. Microsoft (MSFT, +4.2%) cruised after a rousing quarterly report that saw revenues jump 22% year-over-year and net income pop 48%, with both figures exceeding analysts' consensus estimate.
"It appears that software spending continues to be strong; this could be a very good sign for the rest of the tech sector," says Anthony Denier, CEO of trading platform Webull. "The cloud results [Microsoft's Azure and other cloud services grew revenues by more than 50%] also indicate a good quarter for other tech stocks."
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, +5.0%) also rocketed higher after announcing wide beats on the top and bottom lines. GOOGL shares are up 66.9% year-to-date to more than triple the S&P 500 and bring the company's market value to just under $2 trillion.
Those performances helped keep the Nasdaq Composite in positive territory, albeit barely (by a fraction of a point, to 15,235) on a Wednesday in which most sectors were underwater.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.7% to 35,490) slipped from its all-time high thanks in part to Visa (V, -6.9%), which was the average's worst stock today. The credit card concern's fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share on $6.6 billion in revenue were higher than Wall Street's consensus estimates, but a lower-than-expected current-quarter and fiscal 2022 net revenue growth guidance caught investors off guard.
Sector peer Mastercard (MA) – which takes its own turn in the earnings confessional ahead of tomorrow's open – wasn't spared from the selling, slumping 6.1% and contributing to the S&P 500's 0.5% decline to 4,551.
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Other news in the stock market today:
And thus ends the best stock-trading day of the year.
No no – today's performance wasn't much to look at. But historically, it doesn't get any better than Oct. 27. Since 1950, an investor buying the S&P 500 and holding for five days would have enjoyed the best returns if they had started on this date, with an average return of 1.59%, says Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist for LPL Financial.
But don't feel bad about missing out – we're also entering one of the best weeks (and months!) for the stock market, too, which we explore more in depth here.
Interestingly, one of the best ways to celebrate this fertile market stretch might be to explore some dried-out names.
BofA Securities recently delivered a note explaining how tax-loss harvesting season – when portfolio managers and retail investors alike dump losing positions to salvage a tax break – can be a great time to pick up fundamentally sound names on the cheap.
The research outfit also outlined a baker's dozen stocks that could be ripe for the picking. We've taken a closer look at each of these BofA picks, and homed in on the bullish cases for holding these names long after tax-loss harvesting season is over.
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