Netflix helped lead the way after it said live events like football games and a Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight helped it add nearly 19 million subscribers during the latest quarter. It also reported stronger profit than analysts expected and said it's raising subscription prices. Netflix jumped 13%.
The streaming giant joined a lengthening list of companies that have topped analysts’ profit expectations for the end of 2024. Such results support their stock prices and counteract the downward push they’ve felt from rising Treasury yields in the bond market in recent months.
Procter & Gamble rose 3.4% after the company behind Charmin, Crest and Pampers reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It also said it’s sticking with its financial forecasts for the full fiscal year, even though rising commodity costs and the stronger value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies are hurting its results.
United Airlines climbed 3.2% after also flying past analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. CEO Scott Kirby said the airline is also seeing the strong demand accelerate, raising hopes for continued strength in 2025.
Some of the market's most forceful pushes upward came from AI-related companies. Oracle jumped 6.8% to add to its 7.2% rise the day before, ahead of the expected announcement that came late Tuesday about Stargate, a joint venture that the White House said will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of AI in Texas.
The partnership formed by Oracle, OpenAi and SoftBank will invest up to $500 billion. SoftBank Group Corp.’s stock in Tokyo rose 10.6%.
Other AI-related stocks also climbed, furthering their already fantastic run. Nvidia, the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rose 2.7%. It had already nearly octupled in the prior two years, up to nearly $141 from less than $18.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe after finishing mixed in Asia.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield was holding at 4.57%, where it was late Tuesday. It's largely been regressing since an encouraging update on inflation last week, but it's still well above where it was in September, when it was below 3.65%.
In the cryptocurrency market, which has surged amid hopes that Donald Trump will make Washington friendlier to the industry, bitcoin was hanging above $104,000. It had set a record record above $109,000 on Monday.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.