Aug 3 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Wednesday, boosted by the performance of PayPal which raised its profit forecast for the year, while the ISM services index beat analysts’ expectations .
In early trade, the Dow Jones Index gained 153.62 points, or 0.47%, to 32,549.79 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.74% to 4,121.33 points. .
The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.42%, or 175.586 points, to 12,524.344.
The growth of activity in the services sector in the United States accelerated in July, shows the monthly survey of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) published on Wednesday. The service sector accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity.
The largely positive second quarter earnings season has supported markets recently. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices, with a strong technological component, posted before the session on Wednesday an increase of 12.4% and 16.9% respectively, compared to mid-June.
“What we want is a ‘Goldilocks’ scenario, big numbers right now are bad, whether they’re big and good, or big and bad. What we actually want are big numbers. ‘pretty small ups or downs,’ said Jason Blackwell, chief investment strategist at The Colony Group.
PayPal Holdings gained 12.73% in early trading as the group announced that activist investor Elliott Management had a stake of more than $2 billion in its company, as well as a share buyback program.
Advanced Micro Devices was down -1.13% at the open after the chip designer announced third-quarter revenue forecast slightly below Wall Street estimates.
Airbnb also lost -3.03% after saying it anticipated a reservation rate for the current quarter below the expectations of investors who hoped for better in a context of strong summer demand.
(Written by Olivier Cherfan, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)