Wall Street Stages Election Day Rally
Updated from 9:41 a.m. EST
Stocks in New York were climbing Tuesday as traders sorted through some encouraging
and polls across the nation opened for the U.S. presidential election.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was gaining 255 points to 9576, and the
S&P 500
was up 31 points to 998. The
Nasdaq
was tacking on 43 points to 1769.
A series of solid corporate earnings results were bolstering investor enthusiasm. Following Monday's close, credit-card company
(MA) - Get Report
took a net loss on charges related to its settlement of a legal scuffle with
Discover Financial Services
(DFS) - Get Report
. Excluding the charge, however, MasterCard's earnings trumped the Street's forecasts.
Meanwhile, energy company
Anadarko Petroleum
(APC) - Get Report
reported that third-quarter profit climbed year over year and beat analyst estimates.
Farm products maker
(ADM) - Get Report
reported profit that more than doubled year over year.
Pharmacy operator
Walgreen
(WAG)
announced Tuesday that its October same-store sales climbed 2% year over year.
Media firm
Viacom
(VIA) - Get Report
wasn't so fortunate, as its earnings dropped 37% year over year.
In the technology arena, cell-phone maker
(NOK) - Get Report
announced that it will cut an estimated 450 jobs as it restructures its operations.
A series of reports on the state of the financial sector revealed a mixed bag. Ahead of the trading day,
The Wall Street Journal
reported that the
is mulling taking equity positions in financial companies beyond banks and insurers. According to the report in the
Journal
,
General Electric's
(GE) - Get Report
GE Capital segment and
CIT Group
(CIT) - Get Report
are among businesses that may become eligible.
A
(GS) - Get Report
hedge fund lost $989 million since January, according to a report in the
Financial Times
.
Elsewhere in the financials, Swiss bank
UBS
(UBS) - Get Report
announced it swung to a profit for the third quarter. The profitable quarter follows four straight earnings periods marked by losses on writedowns tied to mortgage securities.
Credit markets were continuing to improve. Three-month dollar Libor declined 15 basis points to 2.71%, its lowest level since
Lehman Brothers
declared bankruptcy. Overnight Libor fell one basis point to 0.38%.
Looking at the day's economic data, the Census Bureau's September factory orders numbers showed a decline of 2.5%, a narrower slide than 4.3% in August but worse than economists' forecast for a 0.8% decline..
In the realm of commodities, crude oil was rising $2.47 to $66.38 a barrel. Gold was adding $14.40 to $741.20 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were mixed. The 10-year was adding 6/32 to yield 3.89%, and the 30-year was flat in price, yielding 4.32%. The dollar was rising vs. the yen but declining against the euro and pound.
Overseas, European exchanges, including the FTSE in London and the Dax in Frankfurt, were broadly trading higher. As for Asian stocks, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher.
(
)
