Upbeat earnings news boosts Wall Street
Wall Street ended higher on Tuesday as a spate of solid corporate earnings and upbeat forecasts stoked investor risk appetite and sparked a broad rally. All three major US stock indexes advanced, with interest rate sensitive megacaps providing much of the upside lift as benchmark Treasury yields held steady, comfortably below their recent spike to 5 percent. Third quarter earnings season has shifted into high gear, and this week nearly a third of the companies in the S&P 500 are expected to post results. "The earnings season is only now just getting into full swing with a third of the companies reporting this week," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT in Atlanta. "Prior to yesterday and today, the earnings reports were a bit on the disappointing side, and so this was the first couple of days we've had some more upbeat and better earnings." The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62 percent, to 33,141, the S&P 500 gained 0.73 percent, to 4,248 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.93 percent, to 13,140. Verizon surged 9.3 percent after raising its annual free cash flow forecast, while General Electric rose 6.5 percent after the conglomerate lifted its full-year profit forecast. Coca-Cola hiked its annual sales outlook, sending its stock up 2.9 percent, while 3M rose 5.3 percent on the heels of its upbeat quarterly report. Aerospace firm RTX jumped 7.2 percent after its results topped expectations. On Thursday, the Commerce Department is due to release its first take on third quarter GDP, which is seen showing a robust acceleration to 4.3 percent from 2.1 percent in the second quarter. On Friday, the Commerce Department is expected to follow with its closely watched Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report, which analysts expect will provide further evidence that inflation is slowly cooling down toward the Federal Reserve's average annual 2 percent target rate. (Reuters)