Okta's Optimistic Outlook Sends SaaS Stocks Skyward; Constellation Loses Its Buzz
Wall Street got off to a relatively positive start on Thursday morning, although not all of the major market benchmarks were able to post gains. At first glance, U.S. employment data that showed continuing high levels of jobless claims might have seemed like bad news, but investors seemed to take it as a reason to believe that the Federal Reserve will remain accommodative in its monetary policy further into the future. As of just before 11:30 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was down 27 points to 33,420. However, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) had gained 9 points to a record 4,089, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) had gotten a 102-point lift to 13,791.
The stock market is often viewed as a single entity, but it's valuable to look at the individual companies that make up the market to see what's driving each of them. Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA) posted big gains on Thursday, lifting the entire software-as-a-service stock group with it on favorable comments about its future. However, Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) wasn't as fortunate, as its earnings left shareholders wishing for something a little bit stronger.
Shares of Okta were up more than 8% on Thursday morning. The provider of subscription-based identity verification services gained as investors liked what they heard at the company's annual investor day presentation late Wednesday.
Source Fool.com
