BackUS stocks jump, led by banks
Dow Jones industrial average rises 0.7%, Standard & Poor's 500 gains 0.6%
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New York: US stocks are climbing Wednesday morning, and banks are making the biggest gains after JPMorgan Chase posted quarterly results that weren’t as bad as analysts anticipated. Stocks in Europe and Asia jumped after China said exports rose for the first time in nine months.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 122 points, or 0.7%, to 17,843 as of 10:09 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 13 points, or 0.6%, to 2,074. The Nasdaq composite index advanced 52 points, or 1.1%, to 4,923.
JPMorgan, the largest bank in the US, said its first-quarter profit fell because of weak results in its investment banking business. Its profit and revenue were bigger than expected, however, and the stock rose $1.89, or 3.2%, to $61.19.
Several other major banks will report earnings this week. Bank of America picked up 34 cents, or 2.5%, to $13.61 and Wells Fargo rose 63 cents, or 1.5%, to $48.50. Citigroup jumped $1.52, or 3.6%, to $43.41 and Morgan Stanley gained 98 cents, or 4%, to $25.56.
Agriculture and construction equipment company Titan Machinery said it took a smaller loss than investors expected. Its stock added 65 cents, or 5.7%, to $12.15.
Railroad operator CSX gained 63 cents, or 2.5%, to $25.62. The company’s profit fell as demand for coal got weaker and CSX hauled less freight, but expenses fell, partly because fuel costs dropped.
Beleaguered drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals is falling after the company said it received a notice from a creditor that it’s in default. The company has been unable to make a regulatory filing because it’s restating some of its quarterly results. The stock fell $1.14, or 3.6%, to $30.85.
Tech stocks also traded higher. Apple gained $1.20, or 1.1%, to $111.64 and Facebook edged up $1.79, or 1.6%, to $112.0. Online payment processor PayPal added $1.10, or 2.9%, to $38.90 and auction site eBay rose 68 cents, or 2.8%, to $25.11.
Benchmark US crude lost 70 cents, or 1.7%, to $41.47 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 56 cents, or 1.3%, to $44.13 a barrel in London.
France’s CAC 40 rose 3% and while Germany’s DAX added 2.3%. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.8%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.8% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 3.2%. Exports from China rose 11.5% in March compared with a year earlier, the first annual gain since June.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note ticked up to 1.79% from 1.78%. The dollar rose to 109.16 yen from 108.53 yen and the euro fell to $1.1285 from $1.1397.
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