Investing.com – Stocks ended the day flat Thursday, after paring the bulk of losses as growing expectations for aggressive Federal Reserve easing lifted sentiment following mixed corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.01%, the S&P 500 added 0.36%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.27%.
The intraday backdrop for stocks looked glum as tech stocks weighed on the market following a rout in Netflix. But sentiment on stocks turned positive amid growing expectations for more aggressive market-friendly action from the Federal Reserve following dovish comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams (NYSE:WMB).
Williams said the central bank will “act quickly” to support the economy rather than wait for “disaster to unfold.”
The comments, however, did little mask concerns about the backdrop for earnings following mixed results from major U.S. tech stocks.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) produced mixed results as its quarterly earnings beat expectations, but revenues slightly missed expectations .from Investing.com. The streaming giant added fewer-than-expected users in the quarter, sending its share down 10%.
IBM (NYSE:IBM), meanwhile, saw its revenues decline for a fourth-consecutive quarter, but it beat estimates on the bottom line, with its share price ending the day up 4.6%.
Raymond upgraded Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares to outperform from market perform on expectations that tech giant will offer 5G models across the price spectrum, giving its consumers a “compelling” reason to upgrade.
In financials, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) continued the recent string of better-than-expected earnings delivered by its fellow peers in recent days, topping revenue and earnings estimates despite weaker performance in its trading and investment banking arms. Its shares were up 1.5% on the day.
Energy stocks, meanwhile, ended the day roughly flat shrugging off a decline in oil prices amid fears of a ramp up in crude output in the Gulf of Mexico as operations resume in the region following last week’s hurricane.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Philip Morris (NYSE:PM), KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) and Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), United Rentals (NYSE:URI), and Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.