US stocks rise on strong earnings ahead of Fed
Wall Street stocks advanced on Tuesday, embracing a trove of mostly good earnings news and shrugging off a downcast consumer confidence report ahead of a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates. ExxonMobil, General Motors and UPS were among the companies that surged following solid earnings in one of the busiest rounds of the quarterly reporting period. That helped offset a survey from the Conference Board that showed greater unease about the about the short-term outlook for jobs and near-term business conditions. Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers described the market as basically in a bullish mode, in part because of expectations the Fed will soon pivot away from its ultra-aggressive posture on inflation. "The market is assuming that the end of rate hikes is in sight," Sosnick said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.1 percent at 34,086.04. The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 1.5 percent to 4,076.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.7 percent to 11,584.55. Tuesday's gains came as the Fed kicked off a two-day policy meeting expected to culminate in a quarter-point interest rate hike on Wednesday. Among individual companies, GM soared 8.3 percent after reporting better-than-expected profits and projecting strong results in 2023 as supply chain problems abate. But Caterpillar fell 3.5 percent as it reported lower than expected profits that were dragged lower by operating costs. (AFP)