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* JPMorgan touches three-week high after profit beat
* UnitedHealth eyes best day in three years
* JNJ set for biggest one-day percentage gain since Jan
* Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs drop on earnings miss
* Indexes up: Dow 0.49%, S&P 0.47%, Nasdaq 0.46%
(Updates to open)
By Sagarika Jaisinghani
Oct 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street was off to a strong start on
Tuesday as upbeat earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase,
UnitedHealth and Johnson & Johnson allayed concerns about the
fallout from a prolonged U.S.-China trade war on corporate
America.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N gained 1.7% to a
three-week high after the company beat Wall Street estimates for
third-quarter profit by a wide margin. UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH.N was set to post its best day
in three years, while Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N shares eyed
their biggest one-day percentage gain since January after both
companies raised their profit forecasts. The stocks were among the stocks boosting the S&P 500 and
Dow Jones indexes, and lifted the S&P healthcare sector .SPXHC
to a three-week high. All 11 major S&P sectors rose in early
trading.
"A good earnings season with solid reporting and signs from
companies saying the future is okay would assuage fears
regarding an economic slowdown and recession," said Andre
Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in
Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Analysts are forecasting the worst quarterly profit
performance in about three years for S&P 500 companies, with
industrials among those most at risk from the trade dispute.
Wells Fargo WFC.N and Goldman Sachs GS.N dropped 0.7%
and 3.3%, respectively, after reporting weaker-than-expected
quarterly profit. Collectively, banks were expected to report a 1.2% decline
in earnings, their first year-on-year drop in three, due in part
to low interest rates and trade tensions. Wall Street has been rattled over the past 15 months by
tit-for-tat tariffs by the United States and China, with the
impact already reflecting in the domestic economy.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that
global growth in 2019 will log its slowest pace since the
2008-2009 financial crisis as a result of the trade
war. After a more than 11% increase in the first quarter, gains
in the three main U.S. stock indexes tapered off in the second
and third. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones kicked off the fourth
quarter with a 0.4% drop so far in October.
At 9:57 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 131.51 points, or 0.49%, at 26,918.87, while the S&P 500
.SPX was up 13.80 points, or 0.47%, at 2,979.95. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 36.87 points, or 0.46%, at 8,085.52.
Shares of mobile game developer Glu Mobile GLUU.O jumped
9.7% as it is set to replace SolarEdge Technologies SEDG.O in
the S&P SmallCap 600. BlackRock Inc BLK.N , the world's biggest asset manager,
rose 1% after its quarterly profit beat estimates. Housing stocks including D.R. Horton Inc DHI.N , Toll
Brothers Inc TOL.N , Lennar Corp LEN.N and PulteGroup Inc
PHM.N rose nearly 1% after RBC Capital Markets raised its
price targets on several companies in the sector. Bank of America BAC.N and Morgan Stanley MS.N are due to
report later this week, along with Netflix Inc NFLX.O , Abbott
Laboratories ABT.N and Union Pacific UNP.N .
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.77-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.80-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and no new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 32 new lows.
S&P 500 earnings vs price performance https://tmsnrt.rs/35CNLAo
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