Nucor earnings beat by $0.08, revenue fell short of estimates
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* Nike shares hit record high on upbeat results
* Philip Morris jumps on calling off Altria merger
* Indexes up: Dow 0.6%, S&P 0.6%, Nasdaq 1.1%
(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday
as investors looked past Democrats' attempt to impeach President
Donald Trump, while Nike shares jumped on upbeat quarterly
results.
Democratic lawmakers late Tuesday moved to launch an
impeachment inquiry into Trump, and indexes weakened briefly
early in the day after the White House released a summary of a
telephone call between Trump and Ukraine's president that is at
the center of the impeachment inquiry.
The Ukrainian president said he was not pushed by Trump to
investigate a political rival. Helping sentiment, data showed that sales of new U.S.
single-family homes rebounded more than expected in August, a
sign that the struggling housing market was starting to get a
lift from lower borrowing rates. economic data is fighting with political noise and
good data is winning," said Michael Antonelli, market strategist
at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.
Adding to bullish sentiment, Trump said a trade deal with
China could happen sooner than expected, comments that were in
contrast to his harsh rhetoric on Tuesday on the dispute.
Nike Inc NKE.N shares jumped 4.2% after the company's
first-quarter results beat market expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 170.69 points,
or 0.64%, to 26,978.46, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 18.76 points,
or 0.63%, to 2,985.36 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
86.81 points, or 1.09%, to 8,080.44.
Also on the trade front, Trump and Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe announced initial details of an emerging trade deal
between the two countries, with Trump saying it would open up
Japanese markets to $7 billion worth of American products.
Shares in Philip Morris PM.N surged 6.1% after the tobacco
company called off merger talks with Altria Group Inc MO.N and
said it would instead focus on the U.S. launch of its
tobacco-heating product, iQOS. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.42-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.60-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 95 new lows.