U.S. stocks add gains on Apple earnings, home data
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E-mail Xinhua, October 22, 2014
U.S. stocks accelerated climbing in the morning session Tuesday, as better-than-expected quarterly earnings from Apple Inc. and robust home sales from the country ignited investor euphoria.
In midday, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 162.77 points, or 0.99 percent, to 16,562.44. The S&P 500 soared 28.67 points, or 1.51 percent, to 1,932.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 73.49 points, or 1.70 percent, to 4,389.56.
After Monday's close, Apple posted fiscal fourth quarter revenue of 42.1 billion U.S. dollars and quarterly net profit of 8. 5 billion dollars, or 1.42 dollars per diluted share, smashing market expectations.
Moreover, the iPhone maker also provided strong revenue guidance for the current quarter of between 63.5 billion dollars and 66.5 billion dollars, which is at the high end of market forecast.
Apple shares jumped 2.21 percent to trade at 101.96 dollars apiece at noon.
Providing another upward jolt to the market, U.S. existing-home sales bounced back in September to their highest annual pace of the year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co- ops, rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.17 million in September from 5.05 million in August.
The Dow underperformed the other two indices, pressured by falling shares of its two components Coca-Cola and McDonald's.
Coca-Cola reported third-quarter revenue that fell short of market expectations before the opening bell on Tuesday, warning that the company continues to face challenging macroeconomic environment despite the early progress it has made. Shares of the beverage maker slipped 5.84 percent to trade at 40.76 dollars per share in midday.
McDonald's third-quarter results declined significantly from a year ago, with quarterly net income slumping 30 percent year over year to 1.07 billion dollars, or 1.09 dollars per share, as revenue declined 5 percent to 6.99 billion dollars. McDonald's shares lost 0.80 percent to trade at 90.86 dollars a share in midday.
The S&P 500 had risen 2.2 percent in the past three sessions, recovering from a recent pullback that had the benchmark index down 7.4 percent from its record closing high set in mid-September. Endite
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