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Stocks’ last-minute rebound nudges S&P 500 and Dow to new highs

Technology companies weighed on the market, but gains in healthcare stocks helped offset some of those losses.
(Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
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A last-minute surge nudged U.S. stock indexes mostly higher Thursday, barely extending the market’s winning streak and milestone-setting run.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Dow Jones industrial average closed higher for the fifth straight day, each posting new highs. The other indexes finished slightly lower as investors continued to pore through the latest batch of company earnings.

Technology companies weighed on the market, but gains in healthcare stocks helped offset some of those losses.

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“You have a lot of risk assets, especially equities, having done pretty well,” said Sameer Samana, global quantitative strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Some people are viewing now as a pretty good time to make sure they lock in some of that performance.”

The S&P 500 index edged up 0.84 of a point to 2,562.10. The Dow rose 5.44 points to 23,163.04. The Nasdaq composite fell 19.15 points to 6,605.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks slipped 3.10 points to 1,502.04.

Slightly more stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Drug manufacturers and other healthcare companies rose.

Envision Healthcare led the sector, jumping 10.9% to $45.08. Gilead Sciences rose 2% to $81.59 after Kite Pharma, a Los Angeles-area subsidiary of the drugmaker, received approval to sell a new treatment for a form of blood cancer.

Medical equipment maker Danaher climbed 4.7% to $90.10 after reporting earnings that beat financial analysts’ estimates and raising its outlook.

Verizon Communications rose 1.2%, to $49.21 after its quarterly results also impressed investors. The company said its wireless unit gained more mobile phone users than expected in its latest quarter.

Adobe Systems surged 12.2% to $171.73 after the software maker issued a strong profit forecast for 2018. The stock was the biggest riser in S&P 500.

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Other technology stocks didn’t fare as well.

Apple had its worst day in two months amid investor concern that its recently launched iPhone 8 models are lagging in market share compared with prior iPhone models. The stock finished down $3.78, or 2.4%, at $155.98. Despite the slide, Apple is still up 34.7% this year.

The slide in Apple and other tech companies weighed on the market for much of the day. The sector, which is leading all other sectors in the S&P 500 with a gain of 30% this year, recovered some of its losses by late afternoon.

“The sector has had such a great run, but you’re starting to see some concerns about how big they’ve gotten, some chatter in Washington about should there be some regulations,” Samana said. “People are just content to take some money off the table.”

Many more companies will report third-quarter results in coming weeks, but so far, earnings have been largely positive. Some 75 companies in the S&P 500 have reported, posting sales growth of about 6% and earnings gains of about 9%, Samana said.

Still, quarterly report cards and outlooks from several companies failed to impress investors Thursday.

United Continental sank 12.1% to $59.78 after the parent of United Airlines said weak prices will continue the rest of this year. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500.

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Auto parts retailer Genuine Parts slumped 8.5% to $89.71 after it said costs rose and its quarterly profit fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.

EBay fell 1.8% to $37.29, returning some of its recent gains, as the e-commerce company’s earnings and forecasts didn’t excite investors.

Also, Blue Apron Holdings fell 2.5% to $5.17 after the meal kit company said it will cut 320 jobs, or 6% of its staff positions.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.31% from 2.35%.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 75 cents, or 1.4%, to $51.29 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 92 cents, or 1.6%, to $57.23 a barrel.

The slide in oil weighed on energy stocks. Schlumberger fell 2.1% to $64.50.

Wholesale gasoline was little changed at $1.64 a gallon. Heating oil slipped 3 cents to $1.78 a gallon. Natural gas rose 2 cents to $2.87 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $7 to $1,290 an ounce. Silver rose 26 cents to $17.26 an ounce. Copper fell 1 cent to $3.17 a pound.

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The dollar fell to 112.65 yen from 112.90 yen. The euro rose to $1.1830 from $1.1802.

Global stocks mostly fell Thursday following relatively weak Chinese economic growth data and rising tensions over Catalonia’s bid for independence from Spain.

Germany’s DAX declined 0.4%, and France’s CAC 40 and Britain’s FTSE 100 each fell 0.3%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.4%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slumped 1.9%.


UPDATES:

3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comment.

This article was originally published at 6:55 a.m.

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