US markets settle higher amid optimism about earnings

20 Jul 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday as traders bet on strong corporate earnings reports. Investors were betting that stocks have reached a bottom after their steep declines this year, and as the latest round of earnings reports showed businesses are working through economic pressures better than feared in the second quarter. Toymaker Hasbro (HAS) and oil services giant Halliburton (HAL) posted notable gains after reporting better than expected quarterly earnings.  Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showing a continued decline in housing starts in the month of June. The Commerce Department said housing starts slumped by 2.0 percent to an annual rate of 1.559 million after plunging by 11.9 percent to a revised rate of 1.591 million in May.

The continued decrease came as a surprise to participants, who had expected housing starts to jump by 2.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.585 million from the 1.549 million originally reported for the previous month. With the unexpected decrease, housing starts dropped to the lowest annual rate since hitting 1.505 million in April of 2021. The report showed building permits also fell by 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.685 million in June after tumbling by 7.0 percent to a rate of 1.695 million in May. On the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, resulting in a 4.6percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Substantial strength was also visible among airline stocks, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 4.1 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 754.44 points or 2.43 percent to 31,827.05, Nasdaq surged 353.1 points or 3.11 percent to 11,713.15 and S&P 500 was up by 105.84 points or 2.76 percent to 3,936.69.

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