Stocks climbed higher Wednesday as the broader market moved to continue its comeback from the one-day plunge at the start of the week. All three benchmarks rose higher, with the Dow Jones now sitting about 1% from it's all-time high.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.82% or +35.60 points to 4,358.66
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.83% or +286.01 points to 34,798.00
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.92% or +133.08 points to 14,631.95
Wedbush calls Netflix's move into videogames "ill-advised":
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note on Wednesday that Netflix's move into video games may end up being an "ill-advised foray."
"While Netflix commented that it will initially focus on mobile games, we question whether the company has any idea how difficult the mobile games business has become," Pachter wrote. "The business graveyard is littered with the corpses of content companies that have failed at making mobile games, with Disney (NYSE: DIS) the most prominent failure. Even video game publishers like Activision (NASDAQ: AVTI), EA (NASDAQ: EA), Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO), Ubisoft (OTC: UBSFY) and Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) have tried for years to create compelling mobile content, and each has had lasting success only through acquisition."
Pachter added that Netflix could face "significant hurdles" trying to attract new audiences for its games, especially as its subscriber growth has declined in the recent quarter.
Microsoft to acquire security start-up CloudKnox:
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced Wednesday it's acquiring the security start-up CloudKnox, whose software helps companies reduce the amount of access they provide to their cloud resources.
CloudKnox's software is compatible with Microsoft's Azure public cloud, as well as clouds developed by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The company's software spots, and can remover, cases of permissions for employees and virtual identities that aren't being actively uses. It can also show alerts about unusual activity.
This acquisition marks another move by the tech giant to amp up its security offerings. Last week, Microsoft announced the acquisition of another security company, RiskIQ, which can spot threats across a company's entire internet footprint.
Johnson & Johnson expects to sell $2.5 billion of COVID vaccine in 2021:
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) said Wednesday it expects to sell $2.5 billion of its COVID-19 vaccine this year, despite concerns surrounding the shot's effectiveness against the Delta variant.
In the second quarter, J&J's pharmaceutical arm generated $12.59 billion in revenue, a 17.2% increase year-over-year. The business segment's chairman, Jennifer Taubert, says the unit expects to continue to see strong sales regardless of COVID variants and any other "blips" related to the pandemic.
Here's how the market started trading after open:
S&P 500 Index: +0.44% or +18.87 points to 4,341.93
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.55% or +188.94 points to 34,700.93
Nasdaq Composite Index: +0.29% or +42.65 points to 14,541.53