Dow surges after upbeat profit postings – New York Report
US STOCKS rose yesterday, boosted by a strong reading on quarterly economic growth and by another round of upbeat earnings reports including Visa, which accounted for nearly 140 points in the Dow industrials.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 221.11 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 17,195.42, the S&P 500 gained 12.35 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 1,994.65 and the Nasdaq Composite added 16.91 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 4,566.14.
Visa jumped 10.2 per cent to $236.65, the biggest boost to both the Dow and S&P 500, a day after it reported adjusted earnings that topped expectations, and said the mobile payment industry would be “a great driver” for business.
MasterCard also posted a better-than-expected profit, while revenue was up almost 13 per cent. Its shares added 9.4 per cent to $83.13.
Healthcare also got a boost by Bristol-Myers Squibb, up 8.9 per cent to $58.98 after results from an experimental clinical trial on a lung cancer drug were encouraging.
Social-media stocks fell, with Facebook sliding 2.3 per cent to $74.11.
That extended a 6.1 per cent decline on Wednesday, after the company said earlier this week it will spend more than normal in coming quarters.
So far this reporting season, 75.5 per cent of S&P 500 companies have exceeded profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, above the long-term average of 63 per cent.