1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks leap on Apple earnings, home data
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E-mail Xinhua, October 22, 2014
U.S. stocks closed up sharply Tuesday, as encouraging quarterly earnings from Apple Inc. and robust home sales from the country ignited investor euphoria.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 215.14 points, or 1.31 percent, to 16,614.81. The S&P 500 soared 37.27 points, or 1.96 percent, to 1,941.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 103.40 points, or 2.40 percent, to 4,419.48.
Snapping back from recent deep correction, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index marked the best day of the year.
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 2.72 percent to 102.47 dollars apiece.
U.S. Wireless carrier Verizon Communications and American multinational conglomerate United Technologies also unveiled upbeat quarterly earnings.
The stock market was also underpinned by speculations that global central banks would take actions to rejuvenate the world's economy amid intensified signs of a growth slowdown.
On the economic front, 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 6.03 percent to 40.68 dollars per share.
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 0.63 percent to 91.01 dollars a share.
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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