Wall Street begins the month of May witnessing the rally especially in the stocks of the companies that will benefit most from the reopening of the economies, with the end of the various restriction and lockdown measures. The Dow Jones, in particular, rose sharply by almost 340 points (+ 1%), to 34,214 points; the Nasdaq underperformed with an increase of 0.16%, to 13,985 points, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.60% to 4,206 points.
Among the stocks affected by the post-pandemic Covid-19, above all Gap, which bounces by more than + 4%, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Caterpillar and Travelers Companies rose.
Focus on the Berkshire stock, which rises by more than + 1.5% after the news reported by CNBC that when Warren Buffett, 90, resigns as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, vice president Greg Abel will take the helm of the holding company.
At the weekend, Berkshire Hathaway announced at its annual shareholders’ meeting that it ended the first quarter of 2021 with operating income of $ 7.018 billion, up 20% from $ 5.871 billion in the same period in 2020, thanks to recovery of various businesses – from insurance to rail – from the damage inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Buffett also announced that it initiated a new equity buyback operation in the quarter, repurchasing $ 6.6 billion of Berkshire stock, following last year’s record buyback of $ 24.7 billion.
Also in the spotlight is Verizon, which will sell its media assets, which include web portals Yahoo and AOL, to the private equity group Apollo Global Management for a value of $ 5 billion. This is what the counterparties have announced. This is pretty much a sell-off, considering Verizon bought AOL in 2015, paying $ 4.4 billion, and then took over Yahoo two years later for $ 4.5 billion. Despite the sale, the Verizon stock rises by approximately 0.80%.
In April, the S&P index rose more than + 5%, benefiting from market optimism for the corporate earnings season and the recovery of the US economy. Since the beginning of the year, the list has risen by 11%, and last Thursday also closed at record levels thanks to the balance sheet results of Apple and Facebook.
Also in April, the Dow Jones was up 2.7%, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 5.4%.