INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
US stocks edged higher on Tuesday, as upbeat results from Coca-Cola, Twitter and a host of industrial companies allayed investor concerns
about slowing profits.
Wall Street's main indexes hovered below record levels as investors wait to see if results from major companies
ease concerns about an earnings recession.
Among the biggest boosts to the SP 500 was Twitter Inc which surged 13.6%, touching a near
nine-month high, after posting better-than-expected quarterly revenue and a surprise rise in monthly active users.
Coca-Cola Co rose 2.6%
after its quarterly sales beat estimates.
Profits at SP 500 companies are expected to decline 1.7% in the first quarter, in what could be
the first earnings contraction since 2016
However, forecasts have improved slightly since the start of April.
"Nobody is quite sure what the earnings are going to look like and a lot
of analysts have lowered expectations," said Mark Grant, chief global strategist at B
Riley FBR Inc.
"So we may get some kind of a pop as people realize that things aren't quite as bad as they feared."
At 9:59 a.m
ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 45.80 points, or 0.17%, at 26,556.85, the SP 500 was up 7.65 points, or 0.26%, at 2,915.62 and
the Nasdaq Composite was up 41.37 points, or 0.52%, at 8,056.63.
Seven of the 11 major SP sectors were higher, with technology sector's
0.6% gain providing the biggest boost.
Microsoft Corp, set to report later this week, rose 0.9%, while Qualcomm Inc gained 2.7% after Morgan
Stanley upgraded the chipmaker to "overweight" from "equal-weight".
Industrial stocks got a lift from gains in aerospace supplier United
Technologies Corp and weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp after both the companies raised full-year profit forecasts.
Walt Disney Co rose
1.6% ahead of the worldwide release of "Avengers: Endgame", which is set to hit theaters around the globe on Wednesday.
Among decliners,
Procter Gamble Co fell 3.2% after its quarterly EBIT margin missed estimates, despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly
results.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.53-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.45-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The SP index recorded
25 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 38 new highs and 24 new lows.
