Stock Market Today: S&P 500 ends at record, briefly hits 5,000 for first time ever

investing.com:

Investing.com — The S&P 500 ended at record high for the second-straight Thursday, and briefly touched an unprecedented 5,000 level just before the close as a surge in Disney and ARM kept the bulls marching on. 

At 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT), the S&P 500 Futures was up 0.1% to 4,998.76, after briefly touching the 5,000 level. The Dow Futures contract was up 48 points, or 0.1% to close at a record, while the Nasdaq 100 Futures added 0.2%.

Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), meanwhile, jumped more than 11% after the media and entertainment company's delivered better-than-expected fiscal Q1, hiked its quarterly dividend by 50% and reinistated a $3B share buyback plan this year.

Disney also announced new deals and upcoming events that is likely to boost performance including a major foray into the gaming business, with a $1.5B stake in EPIC Gamess. Most of the newsflow was «nearly all positive,» Macquarie Equity Research said in a note, but still questioned «the offset to the linear networks from direct-to-consumer advances, and the time it will take to bring about meaningful.»

Arm Holdings ADR (NASDAQ:ARM) holdings surged 48% after the chip designer's current quarter guidance topped Wall Street estimates following fiscal Q3 results that beat analyst estimates. The upbeat guidance was driven by strong AI-led demand for its chip designs, which are licensed by major tech firms including Google, Nvidia, Apple.

PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) fell 11% to lead the broader financial sector lower after the payment processing company said it expects full-year earnings to be $5.10 a share, missing estimates of $5.48. The softer guidance offset quarterly results that beat estimates on both the top and bottom line.s

The guidance «calls for