Tech stocks soar on Wednesday as market maintains momentum

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Tech stocks soared for a second-straight day as all three major indexes added to gains after Tuesday's rally.

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At the market close on Wednesday, the Nasdaq was up 1.6%, the S&P 500 was higher by 0.6%, and the Dow was up 0.2%.

This move followed a rally on Tuesday that saw the major U.S. indexes rise more than 2% across the board.

Leading the way higher Wednesday were many of the tech high-flyers that have been hit hardest this year.

Stocks like Unity Software (U) and Shopify (SHOP) were up more than 12% on Wednesday, while shares of Coinbase (COIN) were also up more than 14% as broader crypto markets extended recent gains.

Investors also continue to remain focused on corporate earnings season, with results from Netflix (NFLX) after the close on Tuesday serving as first results this quarter from a major tech company.

Netflix reported a loss of 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter, fewer than the 2 million the company had expected to lose. This did, however, mark the second-straight quarter of declines at the streaming giant.

Shares of Netflix gained 7% on Wednesday, holding onto most of their gains from Tuesday's after hours session. Netflix shares gained as much as 10% on Tuesday evening, which investors had seen as a potential positive sign that "better than feared" results this earnings season will be rewarded by investors.

Reed Hastings (L), co-founder and CEO of Netflix, and Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, pose for photographs during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, June 30, 2016.  REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Reed Hastings (L), co-founder and CEO of Netflix, and co-CEO Ted Sarandos. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji · Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters

And even with investor fears around recession remaining elevated, expectations ahead of this quarterly earnings season have not been entirely re-written, as Nick Colas, co-founder at DataTrek Research, highlighted in a report out Tuesday.

The earnings calendar remains busy on Wednesday, with Biogen (BIIB) raising its full-year profit outlook in results reported before the opening bell. Shares of the company fell 5.8% on Wednesday.

Abbott Labs (ABT) shares, meanwhile, were down 1.5% after the company reported a more than 7% drop in sales at its nutrition unit, which was hit by recalls of baby formula during the quarter. Abbott did, however, raise its full-year profit forecast.

Results from Tesla (TSLA) and United Airlines (UAL) will feature after today's closing bell.

In a note on Wednesday, strategists at LPL Research led by Scott Brown noted the S&P 500 is up some 6% since June 16, even amid a rush of bad news.

Brown also noted that during Tuesday's trading session, breadth in the market — or the amount of stocks rising against the number falling — was the best it had been on the New York Stock Exchange since January 2019.