Market close: Equities mostly flat despite tech performance
20:43, 27 October 2021
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index moved slightly higher Wednesday amid positive earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indexes moved into the red as the corporate earnings rally slowed.
The Nasdaq closed roughly flat to the prior day's close gaining 0.12 points on the day at 15,235 erasing intra-day highs of 15,364. Meanwhile, the Dow fell by 266 points or 0.74% while the S&P 500 is down 23 points or 0.51%.
In capital markets, Treasury yields fell significantly as the Bank of Canada became the latest central bank to roll back pandemic-era support programs on the eve of the US Federal Reserve meeting next week to enact similar rollbacks. Treasury yields at the 10-year part of the curve fell 9 basis points to 1.54% while 30-year Treasuries dropped by 10 basis points to 1.93%.
Market winners
Solar energy company Enphase Energy was the biggest winner in the market Wednesday as shares shot up nearly 25% to a price of $216 per share.
The company reported earning 60 cents per share on sales of $352m in the third quarter, compared with adjusted earnings per share expectation of 49 cents on sales of $345m.
Alphabet and Microsoft were also big winners on the day following strong third quarter earnings that reported in afterhours on Tuesday. Alphabet reported 41% higher revenues for the quarter year over year while Microsoft’s share price hit new all-time highs in recent trading on the back of a 27% year over year increase in profit.
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Market losers
Pest control company Rollins, social media website Twitter and financial technology company Fiserv all fell by more than 10% on the day.
Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano’s said the company lost “a large processing client,” which the company said will have a minimal impact on revenue. Nonetheless, shares fell 11 points to $98 per share.
Twitter shares declined by more than six points to $54 per share after the company reported mixed results after hours on Tuesday. Investors were concerned with the pace of new users as well as new Apple privacy changes that could impact the company.
Global markets
In Asian markets, the Shanghai Composite is 0.98% lower while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.02% on the day.
Meanwhile, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.36% on the day. Canada's S&P / TSX Composite ended the day down 1.03%.
Read more: Microsoft profits, share price reach record highs
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