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*Morning Market Update (22 Oct 2021)*
The S&P 500 index booked its first closing record in seven weeks on Thursday, as investors digested a parade of earnings reports and monitored a potential setback in White House efforts to raise the corporate tax rate.
A good start to third-quarter earnings season has helped investors put the nervousness of September behind them, even as concerns over inflation, COVID-19 and China’s economy still linger.
Of the approximately 70 S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far, 86% posted earnings that topped analysts expectations.
Investors also monitored developments around President Joe Biden’s proposed spending bills, after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona would oppose any increases in the tax rates for businesses, the rich or capital gains.
Biden’s advisers are floating new plans, including a tax on billionaires’ assets, a minimum tax on corporations and a tax on companies issuing stock buybacks, potentially raising hundreds of billions of dollars.
In other news, indebted Chinese property developer, Evergrande, was back in the headlines on Thursday after the property developer ended talks to sell most of its property services division.
Investors continue to sift through earnings, including results from Dow component International Business Machines Corp., which missed revenue estimates, and Tesla Inc., which offered a cautious outlook after beating third-quarter earnings expectations.
Federal Reserve officials in recent days, including Governors Christopher Waller and Randal Quarles, and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, may be laying the groundwork for interest-rate hikes next year if high inflation persists.
The U.S. economy still is growing at a solid pace, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book noted Wednesday, but labor shortages and supply-chain bottlenecks are restraining growth and triggering higher inflation.
On the economic front, U.S. data showed first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell to 290,000 from 296,000 in the week ended Oct.16.
Economists had looked for a figure of 300,000.