US STOCKS-Wall Street closes at record highs as Netflix jumps, Biden inaugurated

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Dow up 0.83%, S&P 500 up 1.39%, Nasdaq up 1.97%
* FAANGs jump after Netflix results beat estimates

(Adds closing details; updates prices to close)
By Echo Wang
Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed at record highs on
Wednesday as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th U.S. president,
while solid results from Netflix sparked a rally in shares of
"stay-at-home" beneficiaries.
Shares of the world's largest streaming service Netflix
NFLX.O surged 16.85% after the company said it would no longer
need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and
movies. The rest of the FAANG group, due to report results in the
coming weeks, jumped with Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O
rising 5.36%. The NYSE FANG+TM index .NYFANG gained 4.77%.
"It's a tech outperformance day which is pretty rare over
the past two or three months as the cyclical rotation has kind
of gotten underway," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy
analyst at Baird, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He added a lot of the
move can be traced to Netflix.
"(Today was) just a reminder that the tech run had gotten
extended... the FAANG names and some of the other S&P 500 tech
names are still incredible operators and are going to be putting
out incredible earnings quarters for the foreseeable future,"
Mayfield added, referring to Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion
spending plan.
Biden will waste little time turning the page on the Trump
era, aides said, signing 15 executive actions in the afternoon
on issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the economy to
climate change. "I'm not sure that the politics of inauguration day did much
but certainly the expectation for a trillion plus in stimulus,"
Mayfield added.
The Dow has gained about 57% and the S&P 500 advanced about
68% since Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20, 2017, which
compares with a 65% jump in the Dow and 75% gain in the S&P
during the first term of the Obama administration.
Wall Street's main indexes scaled record highs in the past
few months, with the blue-chip Dow jumping about 13% since the
presidential elections in November, as investors bet on a strong
economic recovery in 2021 on the back of COVID-19 vaccine
rollout and a bigger pandemic relief plan.
Nearly all of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in afternoon
trading, with communication services .SPLRCL , consumer
discretionary .SPLRCD and technology .SPLRCT among the
biggest gainers.
Wrapping up results from major U.S. banks, Morgan Stanley
MS.N slipped 0.2% despite posting quarterly profit that blew
past estimates driven by strength in its trading
business. The broader banks index .SPXBK shed about 1.34%, declining
for the third day.
With stock market valuations sitting near a 20-year high,
investors are hoping corporate results and profit outlooks will
help them determine to what degree the valuations are justified.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 257.86 points,
or 0.83%, to 31,188.38, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 52.94 points,
or 1.39%, to 3,851.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
260.07 points, or 1.97%, to 13,457.25.
Procter & Gamble Co PG.N raised its full-year sales
forecast for a second time as it benefited from sustained
coronavirus-driven demand for cleaning products. Its shares,
however, fell 1.25% after it warned that the pace of sales might
slow as vaccines roll out.
UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH.N dipped 0.38% after the health
insurer's quarterly profit slumped nearly 38%, weighed down by
costs related to its programs to make COVID-19 testing and
treatment more accessible for its customers. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.24-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 54 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 336 new highs and four new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 13.66 billion shares, compared
with the 12.83 billion average for the full session over the
last 20 trading days.