Tesla's Earnings Beat Estimates as Nasdaq 100 Rises.

US stocks (Dow, S&P, Nasdaq) were sluggish at the cash open on Wednesday, but quickly rallied for a second session on slowly improving investor sentiment, recent sell-offs and hopes that the worst is over in terms of extreme pessimism.

By the closing bell, the S&P 500 was up 0.59% to 3,959, its best level since June 10, with consumer discretionary and information technology sectors powering the rise. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed its Wall Street peers, rising 1.55% to 12,439 thanks to strong gains in Netflix, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Nvidia shares. Netflix set a positive tone for tech stocks after beating second-quarter EPS estimates and losing fewer subscribers than expected, a sign that the streaming business could start to stabilize in a post-pandemic world, a period that has brought headwinds that have been hard to repeat for stay-at-home names. The bullish mood continued in after-hours trading following strong quarterly results from Tesla, the world's largest electric carmaker. The Elon Must-led company reported adjusted EPS of $2.27 on revenue of $16.9 billion, beating both top- and bottom-line estimates (Wall Street was expecting EPS of $1.83 on revenue of $16.88 billion) despite a slowdown in production in China. Tesla shares were up more than 4% in extended trading, although earnings had started to decline at the time of writing. There are no high impact events on the US economic calendar on Thursday but in Europe, the ECB's monetary policy decision could create some volatility on this side of the Atlantic. Investors should also keep an eye on the ongoing earnings season for general clues on the outlook and commentary on how inflation and slowing growth are impacting margins. Tomorrow's key reports will include those from Union Pacific, Blackstone, Freeport-McMoran and Snap.