U.S. stocks close higher amid upbeat corporate earnings
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E-mail Xinhua, April 24, 2019
NEW YORK, April 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, as the market was powered by a fresh wave of solid corporate earnings for the first quarter, including Coca-cola, Twitter, as well as other big names mainly in the tech and industrial sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 145.34 points, or 0.55 percent, to 26,656.39. The S&P 500 rose 25.71 points, or 0.88 percent, to 2,933.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 105.56 points, or 1.32 percent, to 8,120.82.
The S&P 500 went all the way up to reach a record closing high on Tuesday, several months after the benchmark index was hit by a tumble in late December 2018, which marked its worst annual performance since 2008.
Shares of two Dow members, Coca-Cola and United Technologies, rose over 1.7 percent and nearly 2.3 percent respectively, after the U.S. companies both reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
Shares of Twitter soared over 15.6 percent, following its first-quarter earnings that beat market estimates, primarily driven by a strong user-engagement growth.
Yet shares of Verizon declined over 2 percent, after the U.S. telecommunications conglomerate posted weaker-than expected quarterly revenue, while its first-quarter profits came slightly above estimates.
Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around market close, with the health care sector up around 1.6 percent, leading the gainers.
As more than 100 S&P 500 companies have released first-quarter earnings, nearly 79 percent of them exceeded market forecasts, up from the previous quarter's 69 percent, according to U.S. financial data provider FactSet.
Investors are also looking to a series of tech giants to update their first-quarter corporate performance later this week, including Facebook, Microsoft and Tesla.
On the economic front, sales of new single-family houses in March rose 4.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000, from a revised February rate of 662,000, said the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.
The growth marks the third straight monthly increase and the highest level since November 2017, backing market confidence in the U.S. real estate sector. Enditem
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