US stocks open higher despite Goldman, IBM Q1 disappointments

[NEW YORK] US stocks managed gains in opening trade Tuesday despite significant first-quarter earnings disappointments from blue chips Goldman Sachs and IBM and a poor forecast from Netflix.

About five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,039.46, up 35.30 points (0.20 per cent).

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 5.13 (0.24 per cent) to 2,099.47, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was down by a bare 0.56 (0.01 per cent) at 4,959.46.

Supporting the Dow was a strong quarterly earnings report by UnitedHealth Group, which handily beat earnings forecasts helped by a 24.5 per cent surge in revenues to US$44.5 billion.

AFP