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By Tanya Agrawal
REUTERS – The Nasdaq rose on Tuesday as strong results from Facebook and a flurry of dealmaking helped offset the impact of the Bank of Japan’s surprising decision to hold off from expanding monetary stimulus.
The Dow, however, remained lower as IBM and Home Depot fell about 1 percent.
Facebook jumped as much as 10.9 percent to a record of $ 120.79, a day after the company reported a 50 percent rise in revenue. The stock provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
St. Jude Medical soared 27.2 percent to $ 78.77 after Abbott Laboratories said it agreed to buy the medical device maker for $ 25 billion. Abbott was down 5.8 percent at $ 41.29
DreamWorks Animation was up 24.2 percent at $ 39.98, after Comcast said it will buy the company for $ 3.8 billion. Comcast was up 0.8 percent at $ 61.86.
The BOJ’s decision to hold steady in the face of soft global demand and a rise in the yen was particularly jarring for markets after media reports that the central bank wanted to go deeper into negative interest rates.
The decision comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to hold steady on rates and after fears eased that the Fed would signal a rise in June.
“While the central banks will continue to have an enormous impact on the market, the weaker dollar and stronger crude oil prices will support gains in the market,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Private Wealth Management.
The U.S. stock market is on its second-longest bull run ever. The S&P 500, which is less than 2 percent away from its record high, has rallied 15 percent since February, helped by a recovery in oil prices and an accommodating Fed.
The Fed’s accommodative policy is set to continue, with traders pricing in only one rate hike this year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch.
The U.S. dollar index has fallen about 4.7 percent since the start of the year against a basket of major currencies, while oil prices have jumped 75 percent in three months.
At 12:40 p.m. ET (1640 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 45.65 points, or 0.25 percent, at 17,995.9, the S&P 500 was up 1.38 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,096.53 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 10.63 points, or 0.22 percent, at 4,873.77.
Six of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the telecommunications index’s 0.41 percent fall leading the decliners.
Data showed that U.S. economic growth braked sharply to its slowest pace in two years as consumer spending softened. Gross domestic product increased 0.5 percent, below the 0.7 percent increase expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,508 to 1,362. On the Nasdaq, 1,391 issues rose and 1,330 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed 18 new 52-week highs and 1 new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and 13 new lows.
(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Don Sebastian)
