Markets ‘Whistle Past the Graveyard’ as Google Gains $65 Billion in Just One Day

Jon Economy, Market Commentary

While markets decided to ignore what are destined to be doomed attempts to cover over intractable debt crises in Greece and China, thereal action in the markets last week took place in two high-flying NASDAQ stocks -Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Netflix stock split 7-to-1 and the company announced strong subscriber growth, pushing its stock up from a split-adjusted $98.13 on Wednesday to $114.77 at the end of the week. The 18% pop increased its market cap to $48.7 billion and its price/earnings ratio to 210x as Wall Street analysts competed with each other to raise their price targets to ever higher levels.
If you think that sounds giddy, look at what Google did…
The Stocks Driving the NASDAQ This Week
But Netflix’s gains paled in comparison with those of Google, whose stock market capitalization gained an extraordinary $65 billion in a single dayafter the company announced better-than-expected second quarter earnings and hinted at possible stock repurchases or future dividends and showed spending discipline for the first time.

This post was published at Wall Street Examiner on July 19, 2015.