Stock Market Today: Stocks Extend Longest Winning Streak in Years

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published 8 November 2023

Stocks looked like they were ready to extend their longest winning streak in two years Wednesday, but momentum stalled mid-morning. A lack of key economic reports on today's docket had investors focused on a number of corporate earnings reports – some that were good and some that were not so good.

Starting with the good. Energy stock Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – which is the sixth largest position in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio – gained 1.6% after earnings. The oil exploration and production company reported higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue, while operating cash flow came in at $3.1 billion.

Separately, Occidental unveiled a new joint venture with BlackRock (BLK, 1.0%) intended to develop STRATOS, the biggest direct air capture plant in the world. "DAC is a technology that captures and removes large volumes of CO₂ directly from the atmosphere, which can be safely and securely stored deep underground in geologic formations," stated in the press release.

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Roblox (RBLX) was another post-earnings winner, with the communication services stock jumping 11.9% after the gaming platform's third-quarter results. RBLX reported higher-than-anticipated bookings for its third quarter, while daily active users jumped 20% year-over-year to 70.2 million.

As for the bad, Robinhood Markets (HOOD) slumped 14.3% after earnings. While the trading platform disclosed a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss, revenue of $467 million fell short of what analysts were expecting. This was due in part to a 55% drop in crypto trading revenue, while equities trading revenue was down 13% for the three-month period.

Lumen Technologies CEO buys 1 million shares

In non-earnings news, Lumen Technologies (LUMN), the communications company formerly known as CenturyLink, continued to rebound after bottoming out below the $1 per-share mark on November 1. The penny stock was up more than 6% at its intraday high, before settling flat. LUMN is still up more than 33% in the past five trading sessions due in part to news that CEO Kate Johnson last week bought 1 million LUMN shares for $970,000.

"I believe deeply in our strategy, our mission, the team that we've built and our progress so far, and so I went long in the stock," Johnson said, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "My husband and I decided that this is the right thing to do, and I think it expresses my deep confidence in our business."

As for the major indexes, the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.08% at 13,650, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 4,382, both extending their longest winning streaks since 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, gave back 0.1% to 34,112.

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With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.