Stocks rose on Wednesday, fueled by a rally in tech stocks, as all major averages reached their highest point since early June. 

 

The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.58% to 11,897.65, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.59% to 3,959.90. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 47.79 points, or 0.15%, to 31,874.84 — lagging the other two benchmarks and alternating between gains and losses during the session. 

 

Semiconductor stocks outperformed after the Senate pushed forward a $50 billion bill to bolster chip manufacturing in the U.S. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped 4.1%, Nvidia was up 4.8%, and Qualcomm advanced 2.9%. 

 

Streaming stocks surged on the back of better-than-expected earnings from Netflix, which said it lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter, less than the 2 million it had previously projected. The streaming giant’s per-share earnings also came in above analyst expectations. 

 

Shares of Netflix jumped about 7.4%. Disney advanced roughly 3.8%. Paramount climbed 3.8%, and Roku surged 6.9%. 

 

Biogen declined 5.8% despite posting a beat in its latest quarterly report. The company warned that its revenue could take a hit from growing generic competition. 

 

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down by 0.2% provisionally, after reversing initial gains earlier in the session. Uniper was the biggest climber on Wednesday. The German energy giant’s shares jumped nearly 13% amid bailout talks with the government. 

 

Toward the bottom of the Stoxx 600, Volvo Car fell more than 5% after the Swedish automaker lowered its retail sales forecast and missed second-quarter earnings expectations. 

Source: CNBC, Investing.com