S&P 500 climbs as earnings season heats up ahead of Netflix, Tesla earnings

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 climbed Wednesday as investors continue to digest the latest quarterly results as the earnings season continued to heat up, with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) set to report after the closing bell.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, or 145 points, and the Nasdaq was up 0.1%.

Goldman Sachs shrugs off earnings miss; Western Alliance lifts sentiment in regional banks

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) reported second-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates, weighed down by weakness in its consumer and investment banking businesses. But the stock climbed more than 2% as chief executive David Solomon touted optimism about signs of life in the investment banking business amid a pick-up in deal activity.

“It definitely feels better over the course of the last six-to-eight weeks than it felt earlier in the year,” Solomon said in an earnings call following the bank's quarterly results.

Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) rose more than 1% despite reporting mixed-quarterly results as further signs of stability in deposits calm investor jitters about potential outflows from regional banks following the mini banking crisis last summer.

Western Alliance's deposit growth for the quarter came in at $3.5 billion, well ahead of the $2B/quarter guide, which was crucial, UBS said.

Tech takes breather ahead of Tesla, Netflix

Tech was subdued, trading just below flatline, as investors paused their bullish bets on the sector just ahead of the earnings from Tesla and Netflix due after the market closes.

Consensus for Tesla's second-quarter results call for revenue of $25B and EPS of $0.81, which "look beatable," Wedbush says, but "the big focus on this print will be Auto GM (ex credits) to gauge the impact of the price cuts and what this means for margins going forward."

in Netflix’s quarterly results, meanwhile, subscriber numbers for the quarter as well as guidance will likely dominate investor attention following the streaming giant’s crackdown on password sharing.

Carvana surge on debt cut plan brings more pain to shorts

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) announced it struck a deal Wednesday with its bondholders that will reduce its debt by more than $1.2B, sending shares of the used-car retailer more than 40% higher, marking a further blow to short sellers of the stock.

With about 50% of its shares shorted, Carvana is one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street.