The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rose 1.07% to the highest level in four weeks, pushing above its 100-day moving average for the first time in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed up 0.87%
The gains in the index are in spite of continued chaos on the trade front between China and the United States. The U.S. banned China’s ZTE Â (ZTCOY) from buying U.S. technology products for seven years as punishment for ZTE’s violation of sanctions on North Korea. ZTE will no longer be able to buy chips from Intel or optical components from Acacia and Lumentum Holdings. China has threatened tariffs on U.S. agricultural imports in retaliation.
But none of that seemed to matter today as Netflix (NFLX), which reported earnings for the first quarter after the close yesterday, gained 9.19%. Wall Street seemed to regard that as a promise of more good things to come.
Oil closed slightly higher today with U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate finishing up 0.35% at $66.45 a barrel and international benchmark Brent ending the day up 0.14% at $71.52. Gold closed off 0.02% at $1350.40. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 2.82%.
