Wall Street hits high score as videogame makers rally

Wall Street closed at a record high on Wednesday as videogame makers rallied and Apple's market value climbed above $900 billion. Take-Two Interactive Software jumped 10.58 percent after the videogame maker offered a stronger-than-expected revenue forecast for the holiday quarter.
That sparked a rally among its competitors, with Activision Blizzard surging 5.89 percent and Electronic Arts adding 2.19 percent. Buoyed by optimism about the recently released iPhone X, Apple added 0.82 percent and ended with a market capitalization of $905 billion, its highest ever.
More broadly, investors remained nervous about the potential outcome of the Republican plan unveiled last week that would cut corporate taxes while eliminating a range of popular tax breaks. The bill is expected to face strong opposition from interest groups. Republicans have yet to score a major legislative win since Trump took office in January, even though the party controls both chambers of Congress as well as the White House.
"It's a complicated, messy affair to get a tax bill passed," said Tim Dreiling, Regional investment Director for US Bank Private Wealth Management, with $150 billion in assets under management. "There is going to be some give and take before we get a final tax package to be voted on."
The S&P 500 has risen about 21 percent since the election of President Donald Trump a year ago, partly on the back of his promises to cut taxes and other business-friendly measures. The three major indexes closed at record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.03 percent to end at 23,563.36, while the S&P 500 gained 0.14 percent to 2,594.38.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.32 percent to 6,789.12. Six of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, led by a 1.08-percent increase in consumer staples. The tech sector was boosted 0.5 percent by a 2.17 percent rise in Qualcomm after the smartphone chipmaker launched a server processor aimed at challenging Intel. Intel declined 0.17 percent.
Snapchat owner Snap fell 14.62 percent a day after reporting much-slower-than expected advertising revenue and user growth. Snap said China's Tencent bought a 12-percent stake in the company. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.05-to-1 ratio favoured decliners. About 7.0 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, above the 6.5 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.