Investing.com – Wall Street was higher on Wednesday after a number of earnings results from big firms such as General Electric (NYSE:GE) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).
The S&P 500 rose 12 points or 0.44% to 2,851.54 as of 10:44 AM ET (15:44 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 158 points or 0.61% to 26,369.39, and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was up 18 points or 0.25% to 7,478.94.
Earnings season was in full swing on Wednesday, with earnings results from Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Baker Hughes, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), General Electric,United Technologies and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F).
General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) inched down 1.16% after reporting less than expected earnings results, while United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) rose 0.97% after its financial results were better than expected.
Meanwhile Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) surged 3.11% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 2.97% and construction firm Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) increased 1.14%.
Elsewhere luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) dipped 0.44% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was down 0.94% while semiconductor firm Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) decreased 0.34%.
Markets shrugged off disappointing economic data. U.S. existing home sales fell more than expected in December while a separate report showed that business activity in the U.S. private sector declined less than forecast in January.
Market research group IHS Markit said that its composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI), covering both the manufacturing and services sectors, fell to to 53.8 in January, from the prior reading of 54.1.
Meanwhile home resales decreased by 3.6% in December to a seasonally adjusted 5.57 million units from 5.78 million units in the previous month which was revised down from an initial 5.81 million.
In Europe stocks were down. In Germany the DAX fell 30 points or 0.22% while France’s CAC 40 decreased 17 points or 0.31% and in London the FTSE 100 lost 60 points or 0.78%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was down 17 points or 0.16% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 inched down just over seven points or 0.20%.
In commodities, gold futures were up 1.27% to $1,353.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures surged 1.16% to $65.22 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slumped 0.86% to 89.11.