Published On:Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Posted by ARAB GAZETTE. weekly newspaper issued on Sunday morning - London, UNITED KINGDOMمؤسسة الوطن العربى الإعلامية - لندن ، المملكة المتحدة . WA MEDIA FOUNDATION - LONDON, UK
Wall St. climbs on earnings
| NEW YORK
Wall
Street advanced on Tuesday to give the S&P 500 its best day this
month on the heels of solid earnings reports from names such as
UnitedHealth and Netflix that put corporate profits on track to snap a
four-quarter streak of declines.Of
the 52 S&P 500 companies that have reported results to date for the
third quarter, 81 percent have reported earnings that topped average
analyst estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Third-quarter
earnings are now expected to show growth of 0.2 percent, which would
mark an end to the U.S. profit recession that began in the third quarter
of 2015.
If the quarter stays on
track, it will be the first time since the fourth-quarter of 2014 in
which both earnings and revenue of S&P 500 companies increased.
"We had some decent earnings results," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.
"Given
companies' track record of beating expectations, investors believe this
will be the first quarter in five where we have positive earnings
growth."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 75.54 points, or 0.42 percent, to 18,161.94, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 13.1 points, or 0.62 percent, to 2,139.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 44.01 points, or 0.85 percent, to 5,243.84.
Gains
were broad, with each of the 11 major S&P sectors in positive
territory, led by a 1.1 percent gain in healthcare .SPXHC, boosted by a
UnitedHealth's (UNH.N) 6.9 percent jump after quarterly results and forecast.
Gains in the sector were curbed by a 2.6-percent decline in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), while Pfizer (PFE.N)
gained 0.6 percent on plans to ship a cheaper biosimilar to Remicade,
JNJ's top selling product. The news overshadowed J&J's slight
earnings beat.
Netflix (NFLX.O)
was the biggest advancer on the S&P 500, rising more than 19
percent after posting quarterly results and much higher-than-expected
subscriber growth.
Goldman Sachs (GS.N)
rose 2.2 percent after the bank's results blew past Wall Street
estimates, mirroring the performance of its Wall Street peers and
helping lift the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealers index .XBD 1.1 percent.
Among the decliners, IBM (IBM.N), fell 2.6 percent after reporting its 18th straight quarter of revenue decline.
