Dow Rallies as Traders Resume Bets on Reopening Despite Rising Global Cases By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow climbed Wednesday, clawing back some of its recent losses as investors resumed bets on reopening stocks and shrugged off a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases that threatens to slow the global recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69%, or 232 points, the S&P 500 was up 0.60%, to move closer to its record high of 4,172.00, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.66%.

The reopening trade – bets on stocks set to move higher as the economy reopens were – is back on trading menu. Cruise line stocks led charge higher despite a new wave of Covid-19 infections sweeping across a number of countries including Japan and India that will likely delay the rebound in travel.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) was up 8% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lifted its rating on the stock to buy from neutral and talked up the cruise company’s capacity growth and low debt levels relative to its peers.

Carnival (NYSE:CCL) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) were up more than 4% and 3%, respectively. 

Quarterly earnings continued to pour in, some good, some bad, and some that spooked investors.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) fell more than 6% after the streaming giant’s first-quarter earnings beat was overshadowed by subscriber growth that fell well short of Wall Street estimates. The streaming giant guided subscriber growth to increase by just 1 million for Q2, stoking investor fears over the impact of competition from Disney and other rivals.

“[W]e think that competition for new subscribers will limit Netflix’s ability to do so, as fickle subscribers from at or below median income households are likely to churn more frequently in the future and to rotate among the many new services offered,” Wedbush’s analyst Michael Pachter said in a note.

Verizon Communications ‘ Inc (NYSE:VZ) earnings beat in the first quarter was cast aside by larger-than-expected decline in postpaid subscribers as the trend of cable cutting continued.

The wireless carrier lost 178,000 postpaid wireless phone subscribers, compared with analyst estimates for a 40,000 decline.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) jumped 6% after the rail operator reported mixed quarterly results as revenue beat, but earnings missed Wall Street estimates.

Energy stocks also recovered from their recent malaise as oil prices moved off session lows as investors weighed up an unexpected climb in weekly U.S. inventories and the potential of more oil from Iran. The U.S. is reportedly considering easing some sanctions against Iran as an olive branch to smooth over nuclear talks. 

US crude oil stocks climbed by 0.6 million barrels in the week ended April 16, confounding economists’ forecast for a 3.6 million barrel draw.

Big tech, excluding Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), also recouped some losses.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were in the green.