NEW YORK: US stocks forged higher on Tuesday, heading towards a third straight day of record gains as investors awaited another batch of major corporate earnings and as oil prices cooled.
Market watchers also were turning their eyes to the performance of 21st Century Fox following a report the media giant was considering selling its movie business to Disney.
About 10 minutes into the day’s trading, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent to 23,584.26, while the broader S&P 500 gained a similar amount to 2,595.33. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was essentially flat at 6,789.82 following a big jump Monday.
Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was due to accept an award in Washington in the afternoon, and investors will be closely scrutinizing her remarks in case she makes any mention of interest rates and the possibility of an increase next month.
Otherwise, the session was likely to see subdued trading in the absence of market-moving economic data.
“The trading action at the index level will be lackluster while the big moves are taking shape at the stock-specific level,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
“There isn’t any economic news of note at this juncture.”
Although the deal was a long way from being realized, Fox had jumped more than three percent in early trading, while Disney was one percent higher.
A barrel of benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery opened eight cents lower in New York, after hitting a two-year high Monday in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s political turmoil.
Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell were 0.5 percent lower while Chevron had fallen 0.1 percent.
Hotels giant Marriott, social media purveyor Snap, Lattice Semiconductor and real estate firm Zillow are due to report earnings at the close of the day’s trading and all were in positive territory.
Source: Brecorder.com
