Earnings, big pharma deals give S&P 500 6th straight gain
New York (AFP) - Solid earnings and major pharmaceutical-sector deals lifted stocks Tuesday, producing a sixth straight day of gains for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65.12 points (0.40 percent) to 16,514.37, the third day in a row to see a gain.
The S&P 500 added 7.66 (0.41 percent) at 1,879.55, while the Nasdaq put on 39.91 (0.97 percent) to 4,161.46.
A series of deals between pharmaceutical giants Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly shuffled more than $20 billion in assets.
Solid or strong reports came from Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Netflix, Travelers and Xerox, among others.
"If you look at the market overall, we see a lot of beats in terms of earnings," said David Levy, portfolio manager at Kenjol Capital Management.
"The market sentiment seems to have turned much more positive," he said.
Levy said the tech stocks have reemerged as leaders after languishing for much of March and early April. These include Facebook (+2.9 percent), Tesla Motors (+7.0 percent) and Gilead Sciences (+1.8 percent).
Video-streaming company Netflix shot up 7.0 percent as quarterly revenues topped $1 billion and the company added four million new subscribers.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals, backed by activist shareholder William Ackman, offered to acquire Botox-maker Allergan for more than $45 billion. Valeant gained 7.5 percent, while Allergan rose 15.3 percent.
Dow member McDonald's reported a 5.2 percent dip in profits to $1.2 billion, translating to $1.26 per share, three cents below expectations. Shares dipped 0.4 percent.
Comcast earnings came in at 68 cents per share on revenues of $17.4 billion, beating analyst estimates on both counts. The company said the broadcasts of the Sochi Olympics by its NBCUniversal unit were "tremendously successful." Shares rose 1.9 percent.
Solar company SunEdison surged 11.9 percent following a report that activist investor David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital had taken a position in the company.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury edged up to 2.73 percent from 2.72 percent Monday, while the 30-year fell to 3.50 percent from 3.53 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
