A rally for Apple leads Wall Street higher
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 81 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%.
Apple alone accounted for more than a third of the S&P 500's gain. It rose 5.1% ahead of a White House event where it was expected to announced an increase to its U.S. investments of an additional $100 billion over the next four years.
Trading elsewhere on Wall Street was mixed following a jumble of profit reports. McDonald's and Shopify rose following their latest updates, while Super Micro Computer tumbled after its earnings and revenue came in below analysts' expectations. Walt Disney Co. fell after its earnings beat forecasts but its revenue fell short.
Worries are still high that President Donald Trump's tariffs may be hurting the economy, but hopes for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve and a parade of stronger-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies have helped steady the market.
Companies are under pressure to deliver bigger profits to justify the big gains their stock prices have made since the U.S. market hit a low point in April. The S&P 500 is only a bit below its record, which was set late last month, and the big rally fueled criticism that the broad market has become too expensive.
McDonald's climbed 3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. Offerings tied to the 'Minecraft' movie proved to be a hit for the restaurant chain.
Shopify jumped 22% after the company, which helps businesses sell on the internet, said it made more in revenue last quarter than expected. Analysts also said the company's forecast for revenue in the current quarter suggests the strong trends are continuing.
Arista Networks leaped 17.5% after the networking company delivered a bigger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Its forecast for revenue in the current quarter also topped forecasts.
They helped offset an 18.3% slump for Super Micro Computer, which gave back some of the huge gains the server maker has made recently. Super Micro came into the day with a nearly 88% gain for its stock so far this year, but it reported weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that fell short of what Wall Street had penciled in.
Disney dropped 2.7% after its profit beat forecasts but its revenue fell short. Analysts said investors may have been looking for Disney to boost its profit forecast by a bigger amount.
The NFL also announced that it had entered into a nonbinding agreement with Disney's ESPN, which will give the sports broadcaster the NFL Network, NFL Fantasy and the rights to distribute the RedZone channel. The NFL will get a 10% stake in ESPN in the proposed deal.
Chip company Advanced Micro Devices fell 6.4% after its profit for the latest quarter only matched analysts' expectations. Analysts said the company's financial forecasts for upcoming results also looked solid, but that may not have been enough for investors after its stock had already soared 44.3% for the year so far coming into the day.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 45.87 points to 6,345.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 81.38 to 44,193.12, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 252.87 to 21,169.42.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.22%, where it was late Tuesday. It's well below where it was last week, before Friday's weaker-than-expected report on the U.S. job market ignited worries that Trump's tariffs are pushing employers to hold back on hiring.
That report has traders on Wall Street betting heavily that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. Such cuts can give the economy and investments prices a boost, but they also can push inflation higher.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe and Asia.
Choe writes for the Associated Press.
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