Great earnings news from two tech titans pushed markets forward Wednesday to keep the Dow Jones and S&P 500 at five-year highs. That served as a precursor to another pair of big tech earnings — Apple (NASDAQ:) and Netflix (NASDAQ:).
One company’s report was followed by fireworks. The other was followed by a firing squad.
Apple reported record revenues and earnings for its fiscal first quarter — sales grew 18% to $54.5 billion and came in just below forecasts, while earnings inched ahead to $13.1 billion, with EPS of $13.81 topping expectations of $13.47. AAPL also sold a record 47.8 million iPhones and 22.4 million iPads, which came in line with estimates.
However, gross margins declined to 38.6%, and the company’s second-quarter revenue forecast came in shy of estimates, leading investors to slam AAPL shares by nearly 6% in early after-market trading.
On the flipside, Netflix (NASDAQ:) was rocketing after the bell, up 30% after Q4 earnings came in the polar opposite of expectations. NFLX earned 13 cents per share, shocking analysts who expected the company to lose the same amount. Revenues of $945 million also came in well ahead of estimates.
During regular Wednesday trading, IBM (NYSE:) and Google (NASDAQ:) headed higher thanks to good news during their reports the previous day. IBM’s 4% gains were enough to lead the Dow and challenge its all-time high prices, while Google advanced 5%.
Disney (NYSE:, +2.3%) and 3M (NYSE:, +0.2%) also were toying with all-time highs, helping the Dow Jones gain 0.49% to 13,779.93. The Nasdaq improved 0.33% to 3,153.67, and the S&P 500 edge up 0.15% to 1,494.81.
Earnings were not positive across the board, however. Luxury retailer Coach (NYSE:
) disappointed investors as revenues missed forecasts. COH shares fell more than 16%.
Lastly, McDonald’s (NYSE:) warned that same-store sales could fall in January, though its earnings did top estimates, and shares managed to finish fractionally higher.
Earnings notables for Thursday include Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:), AT&T (NYSE:) and Microsoft (NYSE:).
Three Up
- Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:): Up 11.4% (28 cents) to $2.73.
- Safeway (NYSE:): Up 5.4% ($1.01 cents) to $19.85.
- Groupon (NASDAQ:): Up 5.3% (26 cents) to $5.09.
Three Down
- Molycorp (NYSE:): Down 10.8% (95 cents) to $7.88.
- R.R. Donnelley (NASDAQ:): Down 4.9% (48 cents) to $9.28.
- Research In Motion (NASDAQ:): Down 3.1% (55 cents) to $17.35.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL and MSFT.
