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US stock futures traded overnight on Wednesday after the high averages reached a record high on the inauguration day.
Dow futures rose 24 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.05% higher and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.15%.
The largest American airline United fell more than 2% in extended trading on Wednesday after missing the top and bottom line of its quarterly earnings. The airline has warned that sales will suffer in the early part of 2021 if the coronavirus pandemic continues.
U.S. stocks rose to a record high on Wednesday as the latest series rolled in strong corporate earnings as Joe Biden was sworn in as commander.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 250 points to break a record. Microsoft had the most positive effect on the Dow, adding 52 points to the index.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.4%, reaching an all-time high.
The Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 2%, breaking a record. The tech heavyweight index was helped by a 16% increase in Netflix’s share of the strong giants’ and subscriber results of the streaming giants.
The benchmark for small cap, Russell 2000, reached 0.44%.
Biden was sworn in on Wednesday as the 46th President of the United States, succeeding former President Donald Trump. During an inaugural address in which he called on Americans to reject attempts to sow division, and undertook to work for the voters who did not support him, Biden declared: “Democracy has prevailed.” Biden is expected to work on its proposed 1.9 billion coronavirus relief bill.
Wednesday “may have less to do with the inauguration than with the start of a new earnings season and with investors taking advantage of the recent performance to relieve winners in favor of adding stocks from the new era that could be a good earnings quarter, Said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group.
“Perhaps it merely reflects a globally synchronized economic recovery amplified by unprecedented stimulus and closer to vaccinations. With a background like this, it could go up regardless of who’s president,” Paulsen added.
The earnings season continues Thursday with Baker Hughes, Union Pacific and Citrix reporting ahead of the clock. Intel, IBM and CSX report after the closing clock on Thursday.
The Department of Labor will make the data on unemployed claims available on Thursday at 08:30. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 925,000 Americans to file for unemployment last week, up from the previous week’s 965,000.