US stocks jump on earnings reports

NEW YORK: US stocks shook off weak housing sales data and jumped Tuesday on the strength of some buoyant earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.51 points (0.46 per cent) to 13,712.21.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 6.58 points (0.44 per cent) at 1,492.56.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended up 8.47 points (0.27 per cent) at 3,143.18.

Charles Schwab & Co. said in an investment update that the jump in the indices followed stronger-than-expected earnings results from Dow members The Travelers Companies and DuPont and came in spite of weaker-than-expected US existing-home sales.

Despite reporting a large loss and earnings that were below expectations, Verizon Communications rose 0.9 per cent after adding some 2.1 million in new wireless customers.

Insurer The Travelers Cos. rose 2.2 per cent after beating analyst expectations due to lower payments related to natural disasters than in 2011. The news also gave support to AIG, which rose 2.3 per cent.

Mining company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, which also beat expectations, jumped 4.6 per cent.

Delta Air Lines rose 2.9 per cent after reporting earnings that met expectations.

Financial services stocks also jumped on improved macro sentiment. Among those rising were Bank of America (up 1.9 per cent), Morgan Stanley (up 2.7 per cent) Goldman Sachs (up 1.0 per cent) and State Street (up 3.5 per cent).

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion soared 13 per cent in anticipation of a new product launch this month and following reports it is considering divestitures.

Seagate Technology rose 7.1 per cent.

Johnson & Johnson fell 0.7 per cent after reporting better earnings than expected while trimming slightly its 2013 profit outlook.

Slumping aerospace giant Boeing, undergoing regulatory scrutiny following recent problems with its new 787 Dreamliner, was down again, by 0.9 per cent.

Arena Pharmaceuticals retreated 9.7 per cent after it indicated that European regulators had raised issues with its weight-loss drug, Belviq. -- AFP

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