|
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Stocks staged a late-session advance Wednesday, rising after the release of a report that showed the economy continued to expand in recent weeks.
Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat open Thursday, when fair value is taken into account.
The Dow Jones industrial average (up 57.32 to 10,637.09, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 5.63 to 1,236.79, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 10.23 to 2,186.22, Charts) all gained around 0.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve's "beige book" survey of the central bank's 12 districts was released around 2 p.m. ET. The survey -- which will be used to make the decision about interest rates at the August policy meeting -- painted a decidedly sunny picture of the economy in the June through mid-July period.
"The best way to summarize the message is "strong growth, no inflation," and that's certainly a positive from a stock market perspective," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital.
The report gave a lift to a variety of economically sensitive stocks and sectors, including Dow components such as Caterpillar (up $0.97 to $52.79, Research) and DuPont (up $0.56 to $41.71, Research), and a number of homebuilders.
The morning's solid economic news and Amazon's bullish earnings provided support, too.
"In the spring, the worry was that the economy was slowing down," said Ram Kolluri, chief investment officer at GlobalValue Investors. "Now it's summer and we can see the economy is on track and earnings are looking good."
This should continue to support stocks in the short term, he added.
After the close Starbucks (Research) reported quarterly earnings of 31 cents per share, up from 24 cents a year ago and a penny more than expected. Shares gained in after-hours trade.
Bristol-Myers (Research) is expected to report earnings Thursday morning of 36 cents per share, according to analysts surveyed by Briefing.com, versus 45 cents a year ago.
Dow component Exxon Mobil (Research) is also expected to report earnings Thursday morning. The oil company is expected to have earned $1.22 per share, up from 88 cents a year ago.
What moved?
A number of drug stocks jumped, including Dow 30 components Merck (up $0.53 to $31.22, Research) and Pfizer (up $0.46 to $26.70, Research). Johnson & Johnson (up $1.87 to $64.54, Research) also gained, helping the Dow.
Dow component Boeing (up $0.35 to $66.70, Research) rose modestly after it reported earnings Wednesday morning that had fallen from a year earlier but handily beat Wall Street's estimates. The aerospace leader also forecast higher earnings for the rest of 2005 and boosted its jetliner delivery forecast for 2006.
Amazon.com (up $5.91 to $43.65, Research) reported earnings and revenue Tuesday night that topped estimates. Shares jumped 15.7 percent and lifted the Internet sector.
The Goldman Sachs Internet (Charts) index rose 2.7 percent.
On the downside, chipmaker Atmel (down $0.46 to $2.39, Research) slumped after it reported weaker than expected earnings and revenue that were shy of estimates and warned that revenue in the current quarter would miss forecasts.
It was one of a number of chip stocks tumbling, dragging down the Philadelphia Semiconductor (down 3.15 to 473.89, Charts) index by nearly 0.7 percent.
Sanmina-SCI (down $0.64 to $4.62, Research) tumbled after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that fell short of forecasts. The contract electronics manufacturer also forecast fourth-quarter earnings per share and revenue that came short of forecasts.
InfoSpace (down $10.58 to $24.21, Research) plunged after warning late Tuesday that fiscal third-quarter and full-year 2005 earnings and revenue would miss forecasts, due to weaker sales. The company operates some Web search engines and provides ring tones and other features for mobile phones.
Delta Air Lines (Research) slumped after its CEO said the airline's restructuring plan won't be enough to save it, reviving bankruptcy fears.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers by nine to seven on volume of 1.47 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers edged decliners on volume of 1.79 billion shares.
Durable orders rose 1.4 percent in June, versus economists' forecasts for 1 percent slide. Orders rose an upwardly revised 6.4 percent in May.
A separate report showed that new home sales sold at a record 1.37 million annualized rate in June, defying expectations.
U.S. light crude oil for September delivery fell 9 cents to settle at $59.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Treasury prices slipped on the economic news, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 4.25 percent from 4.23 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and the yen.
COMEX gold rose $1.30 to settle at $430.60 an ounce.
|
