NEW YORK, Oct 24 — Wall Street stocks climbed early today behind a batch of largely positive corporate results that offset worries about the Middle East and lofty bond yields.
Industrial heavyweights General Electric, 3M and RTX all gained more than three per cent following earnings reports in one of the heaviest reporting days of the quarter.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 per cent at 33,147.92.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 per cent to 4,246.32, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.8 per cent to 13,125.21.
As conflict in the Middle East rages on, French President Emmanuel Macron was set to become the first Western leader to visit both Israel's premier and the Palestinian president.
This comes more than two weeks into the brutal Gaza conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.
Earlier, banking experts told an investment forum in Saudi Arabia that the war between Israel and Hamas could deal a heavy blow to the global economy.
"What just happened recently in Israel and Gaza — at the end of the day you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious," World Bank President Ajay Banga told the Future Investment Initiative conference, often referred to as "Davos in the Desert", today.
"I think we're at a very dangerous juncture," he added. — AFP
