US: Stocks bounce on earnings, retreat in bond yields

WALL Street stocks shrugged off recent weakness on Tuesday following a round of mostly solid corporate earnings as US Treasury yields retreated.

Coca-Cola, Verizon and 3M were among the companies propelled higher by strong quarterly results in one of the heaviest days on the reporting calendar.

“A lot of earnings came in today, most of the large-cap companies beat expectations,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

“If this continues then there is a good possibility that the earnings rally could kick in and that should give us a nice finish to the fourth quarter.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.6 per cent at 33,141.38.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 per cent to 4,247.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.9 per cent to 13,139.87.

Markets were also cheered by the retreat in the yield in the 10-year US Treasury note from multi-year peaks in recent years that have exacerbated worries about lofty interest rates.

Investors also kept watch on the Middle East where Israel continued to bombard the Gaza strip more than two weeks after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel on Oct 7, killing at least 1,400 people.

Among individual companies, Verizon surged more than nine per cent after the telecom giant reported better-than-expected results and raised its forecast for free cash flow.

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But General Motors dropped 2.3 per cent despite reporting profits that beat expectations.

GM’s stock was under pressure after the United Auto Workers union expanded a strike on the automaker and California authorities suspended testing of Cruise driverless cars as robotaxis, citing safety concerns following a series of accidents and other problems. AFP