NEW YORK, Oct 20 — Wall Street stocks edged higher early today as investors weighed generally solid corporate earnings against lingering worries about inflation and higher interest rates.
AT&T, American Airlines and IBM were among the companies that reported better-than-expected results.
While all three companies were higher early today, the market as a whole rose only modestly as investors eyed the rising yield on the 10-year US Treasury note.
Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments bemoaned the “lack of follow through” to a rally earlier this week on Monday and Tuesday.
“The market remains very oversold and overdue to bounce,” Sarhan said. “And we’re trying to bounce, but the bounce, so far, is anemic. It’s a weak bounce.”
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 per cent at 30,560.28.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent at 3,697.70, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 10,702.67.
Among individual companies, Tesla tumbled 8.2 per cent after reporting that profits more than doubled to US$3.3 billion (RM15 billion) but revenues missed analyst expectations.
JPMorgan Chase characterised the results as “modestly softer than expected,” with pricing not quite as strong, adding to “debates about demand destruction.” — AFP
