Dow, S&P hit records for third straight day; Disney beats earnings expectations

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. markets touched records for the third consecutive day as Disney reported positive earnings for the second quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14.88 points, or 0.042%, while the S&P 500 increased 0.3% as both indexes hit record highs. The Nasdaq Composite led the way, rising 0.36%, after reporting losses earlier in the week.

Disney stock was up 0.67% at closing and gained more than 5% after the bell as the company reported earnings per share of 80 cents and revenue of $17.02 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations, as it beat subscriber estimates on its Disney+ streaming service and its parks segment returned to profitability following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare and tech sectors led the S&P rising 0.8% and 0.6% respectively, while Salesforce gained 2.54% and Apple rose 2.08% to lead the Dow higher.

Markets dipped slightly midday as the Labor Department reported 375,000 workers filed initial claims last week, in line with analysts' expectations, marking a third straight week of declines.

Thursday's gains came after the Dow and S&P hit records on Wednesday as the Labor Department reported that the core inflation measure, which is the index minus food and energy, increased by 0.3% in July -- slightly less than analysts expected.

"We're still at very high levels of inflation in this country and the debate still rages as to whether we're going to see a glide path towards substantially lower levels of inflation, or will it remain at sticky levels much higher than what was anticipated by the Fed and market participants," Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Jamey Montgomery Scott, told Yahoo Finance.