Tuesday, 18 August 2015 02:06
NEW YORK: Gains by Disney, Apple and some other large equities helped lift US stocks into positive territory Monday ahead of earnings from Wal-Mart Stores and Federal Reserve meeting minutes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 67.78 points (0.39 percent) to 17,545.18.
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The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 10.90 (0.52 percent) to 2,102.44, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 43.46 (0.86 percent) to 5,091.70
Disney rose 1.8 percent following a weekend presentation on plans to add to theme parks attractions from the wildly popular “Star Wars” movie franchise.
Dow members Apple and McDonald’s rose 1.0 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Highlights this week include Wal-Mart earnings Tuesday and Wednesday’s release of Fed minutes, which could shed light on the US central bank’s timing for an interest rate increase, expected later this year.
Petroleum-linked stocks were mixed as crude-oil prices fell.
Dow member Chevron fell 2.0 percent and land driller Nabors Industries lost 2.1 percent. But ExxonMobil, another Dow member, rose 0.5 percent and offshore driller Transocean added 1.1 percent.
Nasdaq stocks with especially large gains included Biogen (+1.1 percent), Netflix (+1.6 percent) and Priceline (+1.8 percent).
Tesla Motors, another prominent Nasdaq equity, jumped 4.9 percent as Morgan Stanley lifted its price target on the stock, citing the company’s work on a mobile application-based shared transport system.
Comcast advanced 2.6 percent after its unit Universal Studios’s biopic “Straight Outta Compton” about rappers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre debuted at the top of the North American weekend box office tally, with $ 56.1 million in ticket sales.
Zulily, an online retailer of women’s and children’s clothing, surged 49.1 percent on news it would be acquired by Liberty Interactive’s QVC cable TV shopping group for $ 2.4 billion. Liberty dropped 1.5 percent.
Cosmetics giant Estee Lauder fell 6.8 percent after projecting earnings in the current quarter of 75-78 cents per share, below the 81 cents expected by analysts.
Pipeline company Williams rose 5.6 percent following a report that it received a bid from potential acquirer Spectra Energy. Spectra fell 0.5 percent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.17 percent from 2.20 percent, while the 30-year dipped to 2.82 percent from 2.84 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
