US: Dow, S&P close at records as Disney offsets drop in sentiment

[NEW YORK] The Dow Industrial and S&P 500 edged up to closing records on Friday and notched a second straight week of gains, buoyed by a climb in Walt Disney shares, but a sharp drop in consumer sentiment kept gains in check.

Walt Disney rose 1 per cent as one of the biggest boosts to both the Dow and benchmark S&P index after its profit topped market expectations as its streaming services added more customers than expected and its pandemic-hit US theme parks returned to profitability.

But a report from the University of Michigan dented optimism after it showed the university's preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 70.2, its lowest level in a decade, suggesting that the Delta variant of the coronavirus was impacting consumers.

"That is concerning, the consumer is by all accounts in an extremely strong position but there is this kind of Covid fatigue that is really starting to wear on people's sentiment," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.

"Regardless of lockdown or full reopen, the consumer is healthy enough to spend and kind of keep the economy afloat, it will be different names and different sectors that become the beneficiaries of it." The report sent the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note lower and in turn helped lift mega-cap growth names, such as Microsoft Corp, up 1.05 per cent, while online retail giant Amazon slipped 0.29 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.53 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 35,515.38, the S&P 500 gained 7.17 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 4,468 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.64 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 14,822.90.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.87 per cent, the S&P 500 advanced 0.71 per cent and the Nasdaq slipped 0.09 per cent.

US stocks have managed to slowly grind to new highs over the past few sessions as investor confidence in economic recovery was bolstered by a strong earnings season, the passage of a large infrastructure bill and data showing inflation may be increasing at a slower pace than feared.

In the wake of new data from earlier this week that showed consumer price increases slowed in July, while producer prices posted their biggest annual rise in more than a decade, investors are now looking ahead to the meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later this month for cues on policy.

In recent days, several Fed officials said it is nearly time for the central bank to begin pulling back on its monetary support, including the tapering of its asset purchases.

DoorDash rose 3.5 per cent in choppy trading after the food-delivery firm's loss widened more than expected in the second quarter.

Airbnb gained 1.07 per cent as it recovered from earlier declines, after it flagged a hit to its current-quarter bookings by the Delta variant and a slowing pace of US vaccination.

Volume on US exchanges was 7.99 billion shares, compared with the 9.42 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

The S&P 500 posted 60 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 87 new highs and 159 new lows.

REUTERS