On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index reached a new record level on Thursday, marking the fifth consecutive day, as investors were encouraged by better-than-expected economic data and corporate earnings results.
The Dow Jones increased by 0.64 percent, to 38,049 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.53 percent, to 4,894 points, and the Nasdaq index by 0.18 percent, to 15,510 points.
The rise of the S&P 500 index for the sixth consecutive day is attributed to better-than-expected quarterly earnings results from most companies.
Of the companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported so far, 82 percent achieved higher earnings than expected.
Yesterday, investors were particularly pleased with IBM’s earnings results, causing the company’s stock price to jump by 9.5 percent.
On the other hand, Tesla’s results disappointed, leading to a 12 percent drop in the stock price of the electric vehicle manufacturer.
Positively impacting the market was the data on stronger-than-expected growth of the U.S. economy in the last quarter of last year – at an annualized rate of 3.3 percent.
For the entire past year, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.5 percent, although many analysts had predicted a recession due to the aggressive increase in interest rates by the U.S. central bank.
