Tech stocks had a big day on Monday led by gains in three companies, even as U.S. equities broadly ended the day lower.
What happened: Tesla rose 12.5% during the session as traders were again inexplicably lured by its lower share price due to a five-to-one stock split. Apple added 3.5% and Zoom gained 8.6% during the day with its stock jumping by nearly 10% in after-hours trading after posting better-than-expected Q2 earnings.
- Zoom doubled earnings expectations and saw its revenue jump 355%, beating analysts' expectations by $163 million.
- Zoom now has about 370,200 customers with more than 10 employees, up 458% year-over-year, and 988 customers paying more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue, up 112% year over year.
Of note: Despite reports that Zoom had shut down accounts of users outside China at the urging of that country's government, the company has largely managed to avoid the ire of the Trump administration.
- Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told analysts on the company's earnings call that it has no plans to move its engineering teams out of China.
Where it stands: Tesla was the best performing stock in the U.S. during August, rising 74.3% during the month, including a gain of 50% since announcing its stock split on Aug. 11.
The big picture: The Nasdaq ended the day up 0.7% and closed at another record high. All three of the major U.S. indexes finished historically strong five-month periods on Monday.
- The Dow advanced 29.7%, its biggest five-month percentage gain since July 2009.
- The S&P 500 added 35.4%, its best five-month run since October 1938.
- The Nasdaq gained 52.9%, its strongest five months since March 2000, according to Dow Jones Market data.