Chipmakers, airlines rally lift the Nasdaq despite government shutdown, trade war

On January 24, Thursday, airline stocks and chipmakers lifted the Nasdaq, especially on a day that China-US trade war and US government shutdown pulled down Dow Jones and S&P 500 Indices.

While the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross assured a good chance of resolution in the Sino-US stand-off, he did specify they were a long way away despite the March 1 deadline.

However, chip stocks seemed unrattled — Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which has been underperforming with respect to the many other S&P sectors — jumped more than 5.5%. Better-than-expected results pushed Lam Research Corp (LRCX) up 14.5% and Xilinx Inc (XLNX) grew 17.5%.

Texas Instruments (TXN) stock surged more than 6% after it posted impressive earnings despite fears of disastrous metrics due to weak China demand.

The Dow Jones Transports index grew 0.95% following robust airline carrier results, outperforming the Street’s three major indexes this year.

Three major carriers — American Airlines Group (AAL), Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) and JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU) — all saw their stock jump 5% following upbeat quarterly profits.

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