Tesla, AMD shares post strong gains on a day highlighted by former FBI chief James Comey’s Senate testimony.
Stocks closed with mild gains overall Thursday as almost everyone had at least one eye glued to the Senate testimony of former FBI Director James Comey about Russia’s ties to last year’s presidential election, and its alleged connection to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to close at 6,321.76, while the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 9 points to end the day at 21,183.53 and the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained by less than 1 point to finish the day at 2,433.79.
But it was a good day for Tesla, as the electric carmaker’s shares climbed almost 3 percent to close at $370. Tesla shares hit an all-time high of $371.90 earlier in the day as enthusiasm continued to grow about the Tesla Model Y, a small SUV which the company gave a mysterious sneak peak at during its shareholders meeting on Tuesday.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices also continued to flex its muscles, as its shares rose more than 4 percent to close at $12.90. AMD has been on the rise this week after signs of growing demand for its graphics chips in products such as some of Apple’s new Mac computers.
Gains also came from Facebook, Twitter and PayPal. The Santa Clara-based electronic payment processor’s shares rose 1 percent to $54.39. Credit Suisse analyst Paul Condra raised his price target on PayPal’s stock to $56 a share from $49 and said the company may be interested in Dutch payments-services provider Adyen.
Pandora shares fell almost 1 percent, to $8.42. Reports said that Sirius XM may be looking at making an investment in Oakland-based Pandora instead of trying to buy the internet radio company outright.
Other decliners on the day included Apple, Gilead Sciences, Salesforce.com and mobile gaming company Zynga.
