Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
November 1, 2018
By Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, as robust earnings reports supported a third day of recovery from a bruising selloff in October, but a drop in Apple’s shares ahead of results kept technology stocks under pressure.
Chemicals producer DowDuPont Inc <DWDP.N> rose 6.6 percent after quarterly profit topped estimates and the company announced a $3 billion share buyback.
NXP Semiconductors <NXPI.O> climbed 8.6 percent after the chipmaker topped profit and revenue estimates, while American International Group Inc <AIG.N> gained 4.7 percent after the insurer posted a smaller-than-quarterly loss.
Markets also got a lift after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet he had a “very good” talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping on trade and North Korea and that the two planned to meet at the upcoming G-20 summit.
The rebound comes after the benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> in October posted its worst monthly performance since September 2011, battered by worries over rising borrowing costs, global trade disputes and a possible slowdown in U.S. corporate profits.
“Over the past few days, we’ve seen the pressure valve taken off the selling which certainly helps from a sentiment perspective,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.
The S&P technology index <.SPLRCT> slipped 0.1 percent after two days of solid gains, with Apple <AAPL.O>, last among the major technology names to report earnings, falling 0.2 percent ahead of earnings after markets close.
Netflix <NFLX.O>, Facebook <FB.O> and Alphabet <GOOGL.O> also fell, pushing the communication services index <.SPLRCL> down 0.3 percent.
Shares in Spotify Technology <SPOT.N> fell about 10 percent after the paid music streaming service reported quarterly revenue and margins in line with expectations and a modest rise in premium subscribers.
S&P 500 companies are on pace to have posted a 26.3 percent rise in third-quarter earnings with more than half of the constituents having reported, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Despite the big overall profit increase, some high-profile companies have issued disappointing reports.
At 10:12 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 147.40 points, or 0.59 percent, at 25,263.16, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 12.40 points, or 0.46 percent, at 2,724.14. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 23.57 points, or 0.32 percent, at 7,329.47.
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with a 2 percent jump in the materials index <.SPLRCM> leading the gainers after DowDuPont’s results.
Health insurer Cigna Corp <CI.N> rose 3.1 percent after beating quarterly profit estimates and raising its full-year earnings forecast on tight cost controls.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.99-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.28-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 6 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 29 new lows.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Sriraj Kalluvila)
