More from Briefing.com: President Trump's first address to Congress appeared to be a hit, at least among investors, as traders confidently pushed the major averages to fresh record highs on Wednesday. All-time highs were had in the Dow Jones Industrial Average which gained 303.31 points (+1.46%) to 21115.55, the S&P 500 +32.32 points (+1.37%) to 2395.96, and the Nasdaq Composite +78.59 points (+1.35%) to 5904.03.
It wasn't necessarily 'what' Mr. Trump said on Tuesday evening that fueled investors' confidence, it was 'how' he said it. The new president looked, well, 'presidential', a good sign that his controversial style can be toned-down when need be. More importantly, he showed investors that he is committed to getting his pro-growth promises through Congress, even if it means a little compromise.
Additionally, selling pressure plagued U.S. Treasuries after hawkish comments from New York Fed President Dudley (FOMC voter) on Tuesday evening. Mr. Dudley got investors seriously thinking about the possibility of a March rate hike, saying the case for increasing interest rates has become "a lot more compelling."
The fed funds futures market now points to March as an increasingly likely time for the next rate hike to be announced with an implied probability of 66.4%, spiking from yesterday's reading of 35.4%.
Today's economic data included the January personal income reading, which rose 0.4. January personal spending increased 0.2% and Core PCE prices for January. The ISM Index for February rose to 57.7 from an unrevised reading of 56.0 in January. Also, the Construction Spending report for January showed a 1.0% decrease and the prior month's reading was revised to +0.1% from -0.2%. Lastly, the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index, which was released earlier this morning, increased 5.8% to follow last week's 2.0% downtick.
Technology (XLK 53.09, +0.74 +1.41%) rode the strong session in the broader market to highs of its own dating back to September of 2000. Component Micron (MU 24.55, +1.11 +4.74%) performed the best today after a premarket upgrade of the stock to a 'Buy' rating at Goldman. The Financial XLF +2.85% sector out-performed all other S&P sectors today, followed by the XLE +2.00%, XLB +1.95%, XLI +1.69%, XLY +1.12%, IYZ +1.05%, XLV +1.00%, XLP +0.47%, XLRE -0.25%, XLU -0.89%.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (897.10, +13.05 +1.48%) space, trading moved to new all-time highs today. Component Salesforce.com (CRM 83.81, +2.46 +3.02%) was among the better performing names today as the company reported better than expected Q4 results. Other names in the space which closed higher today included ATVI +4.45%, ADSK +3.05%, NTAP +2.82%, STX +2.68%, QRVO +2.65%, APH +2.41%, CTXS +2.31%, PAYX +2.26%, ADI +2.23%, TEL +2.23%, GLW +2.14%, AAPL +2.04%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Square (SQ 17.21, -0.11 -0.64%) upsized its latest offering by $50 million and priced $400 million of convertible senior notes due 2022.
In addition to reporting quarterly results, Palo Alto Networks' (PANW 115.21, -36.69 -24.15%) BoDs authorized a $500 million increase to the existing repurchase program. The company also announced the acquisition of LightCyber for $105 million in cash.
In addition to reporting quarterly revenues, Ambarella (AMBA 56.34, -2.61 -4.43%) approved a share repurchase plan of an aggregate of $75 million through June 30, 2017.
Twilio (TWLO 32.32, +0.60 +1.89%) appointed former Salesforce (CRM) COO George Hu as its COO.
Yelp (YELP 34.66, +0.96 +2.85%) acquired Nowait, a restaurant technology company with waitlist system and seating tool, for $40 million in cash and includes the partial stake which Yelp acquired previously.
Alphabet's (GOOG 835.24, +12.03 +1.46%) Youtube confirmed the launch of live TV (TV membership is only $35 a month).
NVIDIA (NVDA 102.79, +1.31 +1.29%) unveiled the latest Pascal architecture-based GPU, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, and GameWorks DX12, a collection of resources for game developers that will increase realism and shorten product cycles in titles designed using DirectX 12, Microsoft's API that unifies graphics and simulation.
Accenture (ACN 124.07, +1.57 +1.28%) acquired Davies Consulting. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Xerox (XRX 7.39, -0.05 -0.67%) announced plans to retire $300 million in debt. The company is targeting to exchange $300 million of existing debt for new debt.
Advanced Micro (AMD 14.95, +0.49 +3.42%) and Bethesda Softworks announce partnership.
Maxwell Tech (MXWL 5.28, +0.20 +3.94%) to acquire substantially all of the assets and business of Nesscap for $23.175 million.
In reaction to quarterly results:
Salesforce.com (CRM) reported better than expected Q4 earnings of $0.28 on revenues which rose about 26.8% compared to last year to $2.29 billion. For Q1, the company sees EPS and revenues below market expectations at $0.25-0.26 and $2.34-2.35 billion, respectively. For FY18, CRM sees EPS in-line at $1.27-1.29 on better than expected revenues in the range of $10.15-10.20 billion, from $10.10-10.15 billion.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reported better than expected Q2 EPS of $0.63 on worse than expected revenues and billings of $422.6 million and $561.6 million, respectively. For Q3, the company sees EPS and revenues below market expectations at $0.54-0.56 and $406-416 million, respectively.
Veeva Systems (VEEV 44.90, +1.21 +2.77%) reported worse than expected Q4 EPS of $0.15 on revenues which beat market expectations at $150.2 million. Further, the company guided Q1 EPS in-line with revenues ahead of expectations at $0.18 and $151-152 million, respectively. For FY18, VEEV sees EPS in-line and revenues above market expectations at $0.78-0.80 and $655-660 million, respectively.
Ambarella (AMBA) reported better than expected Q4 EPS of $0.92 on revenues which also came in ahead of market expectations at $87.5 million. For Q1, the company sees revenues worse than expected at $62.5-64.5 million.
XO Group (XOXO 16.50, -1.93 -10.47%) reported better than expected Q4 EPS of $0.13 on in-line revenues which rose 7.6% versus last year to $41 million.
Maxwell Tech (MXWL) reported a worse than expected Q4 loss of $0.23 per share on better than expected revenues which fell about 47% compared to last year to $26.4 million. MXWL also sees Q1 EPS below market expectations at ($0.26)-($0.22) on in-line revenues of $25-27 million.
Companies scheduled to report quarterly results tonight/tomorrow morning: BOX, AVGO, PMTS, PSTG, VEC/ACIW, KVHI, MEI, SFE
Analyst actions:
AMBA was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Dougherty,
MU was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman,
MRVL was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman;
PANW was downgraded at First Analysis Sec, JP Morgan, Robert W. Baird, William Blair, Morgan Stanley, Imperial Capital, UBS and Wunderlich,
INTC was downgraded to Underperform from Mkt Perform at Bernstein,
CRUS was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer,
WDAY was downgraded to Mkt Perform from Outperform at Bernstein,
AVT was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman,
XOXO was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel,
JBL was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Standpoint Research;
PTC was initiated with a Buy at Seaport Global Securities
