Fresh Quarterly Earnings Helped Push Some Indexes to Record Highs
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Here's your Closing Bell Brief for Thursday, February 6th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. A fresh batch of strong quarterly earnings helped push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq towards record highs, while plans to break up one of the last remaining industrial conglomerates in the U.S. dragged down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index fell almost 126 points to close at 44,748.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 22 points, and the Nasdaq rose almost 100 points. Honeywell International fell more than 5.5% after it announced plans to split into three separate companies, one focused on aerospace, another on automation, and a third covering advanced materials. The company had been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management to split following the success of last year's breakup of General Electric.

GE's aerospace, energy, and healthcare units are now standalone businesses that together have a market value nearly four times larger than GE had in 2022. Meanwhile, gains in other companies suggest American consumers are confident enough in their employment to keep spending at a healthy clip.

Shares in fashion firms Ralph Lauren and Tapestry, which owns the Coach and Kate Spade brands, both closed at record highs. Ralph Lauren was up almost 10%, and Tapestry's stock gained 12%.

And shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both jumped after Scott Turner, the incoming head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told the Journal in an interview that privatizing the mortgage finance firms is a priority. Shares of Fannie rose 14.5% and Freddie's stock gained 16%. We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.