US stock markets continued their recent strength, with the Nasdaq outperforming, gaining 0.6% on the support of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) which added more than 3%.
The Dow Jones underperformed, finishing broadly flat while the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% as company-specific news separates the weak from the strong.
IBM share price tanks
It was International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) that detracted most from the Dow, falling nearly 10% after announcing a near 30% reduction in profit despite revenue remaining broadly flat year on year.
Management responded by announcing its intended spin-off of Kyndryl, which despite the name takes care of the boring IT infrastructure work of major enterprises.
Tesla’s record
It was a much brighter day for Tesla which reported record electric vehicle sales over the summer despite many competitors blaming a shortage of computer chips on their sales.
This delivered Tesla’s biggest quarterly earnings result ever, hitting US$1.62 billion, 500% higher than the same time last year.
Revenue also increased more than 10% to US$13.76 billion with a boost in margins being seen by many as a sign that the company may well be able to live up to its lofty tech expectations.
US stock market movers
These US stocks were among the biggest movers on Thursday.
- DiDi Global (NYSE: DIDI) up 13.6%
- Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) up 10.3%
- HP (NYSE: HPQ) up 6.9%
- T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) down 4.2%
- CoinBase (NASDAQ: COIN) down 4.7%
- PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) down 5.9%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to open broadly flat on Friday. For a round-up of the latest news, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
