US: Stocks rise as Turkey worries ease

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished solidly higher Tuesday amid more positive sentiment about the Turkish currency crisis that depressed markets the last two sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.5 per cent to close at 25,299.92.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to end at 2,839.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.7 per cent to 7,870.89.

Investors greeted a bounce in the Turkish lira after two straight sessions of weakness in the currency, alleviating immediate worries of financial contagion.

"Part of what happened today is people realized that the exposures outside of Turkey are probably not as big as we thought," said Chris Low of FTN Financial.

"I don't think we are entirely out of the woods yet because the Fed is still tightening and Turkey has not really taken any material steps to stabilise the lira," Mr Low added.

And he noted the main concern was the possibility of big losses by European banks and "There has been some reassurance on that."

The gains by the lira came even as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would boycott US electronic goods like the iPhone in retaliation for punitive sanctions from Washington, including raising duties on steel and aluminum imports.

Most of the Dow advanced, with Dow DuPont, McDonald's and Microsoft all winning more than one per cent. Walgreens Boots Alliance climbed 3.3 per cent.

Shares of Home Depot dipped 0.3 per cent as it raised its full-year forecast following better-than-expected earnings. That hardware retailer's net earnings jumped 31.2 per cent to US$3.5 billion.

Tesla Motors dropped 2.5 per cent after announcing that its board had appointed a special committee to formally consider chief executive Elon Musk's proposal to take the company private.

The company has continued to face questions over Mr Musk's comments on the initiative, including a claim that he had funding "secured" for a deal when he initially announced the idea on Twitter last week.

AFP