NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index rose modestly on Wednesday, with the blue-chip Dow on pace for its eighth straight day of gains as investors gauged the latest round of corporate earnings, but a decline in Microsoft held the Nasdaq near the unchanged mark.
Bank stocks extended their rally, with the S&P 500 bank index rising a third straight session of gains and for the eighth time in the past nine.
Goldman Sachs rose after reporting a 3-year low in profit but CEO David Solomon made upbeat comments about signs of a recovery in investment banking. That echoed comments from other big banks on Tuesday.
“Right now we are getting through the raft of companies that are smart and years ago had moved over to more reliable fee based income and that is what people are kind of working through their heads,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.
“Banks are giving you the tenor of what is happening in business.”
Citizens Financial jumped and M&T Bank rose after both beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit. US Bancorp reversed earlier losses to climb higher as the Minneapolis-based lender posted a 28% jump in quarterly net interest income.
The KBW regional bank index rose for a third straight session to reach its highest intraday level since March 21.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 10.91 points, or 0.24%, to end at 4,565.89 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 3.86 points, or 0.03%, to 14,357.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 109.49 points, or 0.31%, to 35,061.42.
The Dow was on track for its eighth straight session of gains, its longest winning streak since September 2019.
But gains on the Nasdaq were held in check, weighed down by a fall in Microsoft after a report that Apple was working on artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. Nvidia and Alphabet also lost ground.
Carvana surged after the used-car retailer struck a deal with most of its term bondholders to cut its outstanding debt by more than $1 billion.
Tesla was little changed in choppy trade ahead of results expected after the bell. It will be the first of the megacap growth companies whose outsized gains have fueled a roughly 37% gain in the Nasdaq this year to report earnings this quarter.
Results from Netflix and International Business Machines Corp are also due after the closing bell.
Second-quarter earnings are expected to have declined 8.2%, Refinitiv data showed, more than the 5.7% fall expected at the start of the month.
AT&T rose after the telecom company said it did not intend to immediately remove lead cables from Lake Tahoe pending further analysis. Peer Verizon also added 5.4%.
Halliburton shed after posting disappointing quarterly revenue, while Baker Hughes edged up 0.5% after beating earnings expectations.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Richard Chang and Aurora Ellis)
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