Dow Jones, S&P 500 open at record highs with strong earnings

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The Dow Jones and S&P 500 opened Friday at record high levels with strong company earnings, while five indices in Europe posted new all-time highs.

The blue-chip Dow hit a record high of 35,610.57 points with the first bell, although later retreated to 35,575 for a 0.2% gain at 9.55 a.m. EDT (1355GMT).

The S&P 500 climbed to a new all-time high of 4,468.37 at the opening but later fell to 4,465 for a 0.1% increase.

The Nasdaq, on the other hand, was down 3 points, to 14,812.

The record-high levels came after Airbnb and Walt Disney announced late Thursday that their revenue soared around 300% in the second quarter year-on-year.

While Disney shares rose 3.4% on Friday, Airbnb's stock price was down 1.3% after the online vacation rental hub warned that new COVID-19 variants may impact the travel industry.

The strong start to the session caused the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, to slide 1.7% to 15.32.

The dollar index also fell 0.3% to 92.76, while the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes declined 2.3% to 1.335.

Precious metals continued their volatility, this time showing some recovery. Gold added 0.8% to $1,767 per ounce and silver rose 1.5% to $23.54.

Oil prices also showed slight losses, with Brent crude losing 0.4% to $71.04 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate stood at $68.88 – a 0.3% loss.

-Europe

Major indices in Europe were still strong after five of them earlier posted new all-time highs.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, saw a new record high of 476.16 before hovering around 475 points at 1410GMT.

London's FTSE 100 saw a new all-time high of 7,224.46 earlier in the session, but it was trading at 7,216 points for a 0.3% gain.

Germany's DAX 30 was up 80 points, 0.2%, to 15,976 after seeing a fresh all-time high of 16,030.33 earlier during the session.

The French CAC 40 renewed its record with 6,913.67. It was at 6,896 points, up 0.2%.

Italy's FTSE MIB was up 0.3% at 26,630 points after posting a new all-time high of 26,687.97.

Spain's IBEX 35 was the only major index that did not reach a record high, but it was up 0.3% at 9,003.