US tech stocks make good gains, along with banks

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq continued to make solid gains across the board during Wednesday’s trading session as the indices headed towards a fifth day in the recent rally. The gains as a whole were propped up by the technology and banking sectors, which both outperformed the market as a whole.

As the market opened the Indexes was down due to investors selling up and taking their profits from the first four days of the rally, which caused a rather large dip in the market. However, with confidence high due to this week’s gains, many investors saw this as a great opportunity to buy — allowing the markets to bounce back. That same confidence has been evident throughout the first half of the this year. Investors are buying during declines, which has allowed the US markets to avoid any prolonged slumps.

Apple saw its stock rise by 1.3 percent, just edged out by Google as it went one better with gains of 1.4 percent at midday. One of the few tech based companies to slide were AOL, who saw their price fell by 8.5 percent due to worse than expected earnings. Citigroup lead the way for the bankers, rising by 2.4 percent, while Bank of America also enjoyed gains of 1.9 percent, hitting $13.14 per share.

Interestingly, Walt Disney Co fell by 0.6 percent, despite better than expected earnings and an increase in revenue of 10 percent. The company, who purchased Lucas Films and the Star Wars franchise in October of last year, recently announced a licensing contract with Electronic Arts for all Star Wars games in the near future. This has lead to some confusion as to why the stock has slid, with no obvious negative news currently in circulation and plenty of positives seemingly on the horizon.

All in all, the US markets appear to be in good health with every possibility that this rally will continue until the end of the week. The S&P 500 has made gains of 14 percent so far this calendar year, 2.7% of which have been made since Friday.