US close: Disney dents Dow, but Nvidia invigorates Nasdaq

Wall Street waxed and waned on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones dipping but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq inching higher after investors tried to make sense of President Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey amid another rebound for oil prices.

Alongside a rise in the dollar index, the Dow closed down almost 33 points to 20,943.11 due to big falls from Walt Disney and Boeing.

Even though the House of Mouse sketched out better earnings than expected after hours on Tuesday, the stock dropped on concerns about sports broadcasting arm ESPN, where subscriber numbers declined and programming costs climbed to dent profits at the longtime cash cow.

This overshadowed the success of the Beauty and the Beast live action remake, which has become the country's highest-grossing PG-rated movie of all time, and a new theme park in Shanghai that has approached the 10m-visitor mark faster forecast.

Boeing shares were hit as the aeroplane maker temporarily suspended flights of its 737 Max jetliners due to an engine problem that comes not long before its first commercial deliveries are due later this month.

The S&P rose almost nine points to 6,129.14 and the Nasdaq nearly three points to 2,399.63, with both led by barnstorming performances from tech groups Nvidia Corp and Electronic Arts Inc, up almost 18% and 13% respectively after each issued strong first quarter results.

Nvidia, a computer games graphics specialist that is emerging as a key datacentre provider in the artificial intelligence space, printed revenue of $1.94bn that were up 48% and led to earnings per share more than doubling to $0.79, which trod all over analysts forecasts of $1.9bn and $0.66.

Chief executive office Jensen Huang gave guidance that the second quarter was likely to see similar levels of revenue as he said the AI "revolution" continued to accelerate.

"Our Datacenter GPU computing business nearly tripled from last year, as more of the world's computer scientists engage deep learning. One industry after another is awakening to the power of GPU deep learning and AI, the most important technology force of our time," he said.

Games maker Electronic Arts rose to a new all-time high as revenue hopped nearly 17% to $1.53bn and earnings per share of $0.85 were well ahead of the Wall Street consensus of US$0.75.

Coming to terms with Comey

Earlier in the session all three indices had stumbled lower in the aftermath of the sacking of the FBI chief Comey.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "While Comey’s shock dismissal doesn’t technically have any immediate consequences for the market, it is another reminder of the unpredictable and irresponsible nature of Trump’s governance."

In an unexpected announcement late on Tuesday, the White House confirmed that Comey had been removed from his position due, apparently, to his handling of the inquiry into Hillary Clinton's email server, though Comey was also leading the bureau's investigation into whether members of Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia in the run up to last year's election.

News that US oil stockpiles dropped sharply last week sent front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures higher by more than 3% to $47.34 a barrel on the NYMEX.

The Energy Information Administration reported a 5.2m barrel drop in US commercial crude oil inventories for the week ending on 5 May.

Acting as a backdrop, overnight Robert Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Dallas, told an audience that three interest rate hikes in 2017 continued to be his baseline scenario.

His remarks weighed on longer-term US government yields, with those on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note slipping by two basis points to 2.38%.

Dow Jones - Risers

Chevron Corp. (CVX) $106.50 1.35%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $100.36 1.08%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $63.93 1.03%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $87.43 0.78%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $120.69 0.62%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $224.88 0.50%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $69.31 0.39%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $158.13 0.29%
Visa Inc. (V) $92.30 0.27%
American Express Co. (AXP) $78.62 0.27%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $109.66 -2.15%
Boeing Co. (BA) $183.18 -2.00%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $33.03 -1.05%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $36.01 -0.99%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.70 -0.80%
3M Co. (MMM) $196.64 -0.67%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $54.54 -0.60%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $151.18 -0.57%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $81.91 -0.49%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $153.26 -0.47%

S&P 500 - Risers

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $121.29 17.83%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $108.16 12.65%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $5.75 6.48%
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) $24.88 4.45%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $18.16 3.77%
Newfield Exploration Co (NFX) $35.29 3.61%
Vulcan Materials Co. (VMC) $130.63 3.58%
Kroger Co. (KR) $30.04 3.41%
Eog Resources Inc. (EOG) $94.56 3.16%
Hess Corp. (HES) $49.23 2.93%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $1.32 -7.69%
Priceline Group Inc (PCLN) $1,824.77 -4.52%
Allergan plc (AGN) $229.72 -3.69%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $34.95 -3.53%
TEGNA Inc (TGNA) $23.31 -3.08%
News Corp Class A (NWSA) $12.71 -3.05%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $120.95 -3.01%
Signet Jewelers Ltd (SIG) $63.01 -2.94%
News Corp Class B (NWS) $13.05 -2.61%
Pentair plc (PNR) $65.99 -2.58%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $121.29 17.83%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $108.16 12.65%
Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) $78.51 2.69%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $279.05 2.63%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $55.99 2.51%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $33.14 2.38%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $39.32 2.05%
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $42.87 1.97%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $160.28 1.79%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $29.32 1.77%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Priceline Group Inc (PCLN) $1,824.77 -4.52%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $34.95 -3.53%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. - Ordinary Shares (NCLH) $54.07 -3.07%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $120.95 -3.01%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $29.67 -2.27%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class C (DISCK) $25.45 -2.12%
Liberty Global Plc Lilac Class C (LILAK) $21.07 -2.09%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $26.11 -2.06%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $30.22 -2.04%
Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX) $61.02 -1.71%