Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Wednesday as investors continued to digest positive signs from the third quarter reportings season and oil surged on a huge inventory drop, while looking ahead to key economic data from the Federal Reserve (Fed).
At 11:45AM ET (15:45GMT), the Dow Jones gained 67 points, or 0.37%, the S&P 500 rose 6 points, or 0.29% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched up 5 points, or 0.05%.
Moving past a third-quarter read on the Chinese economy that showed 6.7% growth and reassured investors that the world’s second-largest economy wasn’t on the brink of a hard landing, eyes continued to focus on a positive start to the U.S. earnings season that looked set to break a five-quarter losing streak on profits.
Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) traded with slight losses on Wednesday despite beating market expectations on a good performance in bond-trading. The negative reaction in its stock might be attributable to previous results from U.S. banking rivals.
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), however, managed to pocket gains of more than 2% on its own better-than-expected quarterly numbers out after the market close on Tuesday, despite concerns over the effect of the impact of the widely-reported user hack ahead of its acquisition by Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ).
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was a clear loser in Wednesday’s session as the chip giant tumbled more than 5%, making it the lead decliner on the Dow. Though the blue chip firm beat estimates, its forecast disappointed.
Dow component American Express (NYSE:AXP) will capture investor attention with its own quarterly earnings after the market close.
On the economic front, there were mixed readings from the real estate sector as housing starts tumbled in September, but the building permits, a leading indictor for the future health of the market, jumped more than expected.
Market participants were still waiting Wednesday for the publication of the Fed Beige Book that reflects the economic stature of the U.S. in the 12 districts of the Federal Reserve.
San Francisco Fed president John Williams gave no cause for market moves as his remarks focused on financial diversity though markets could adjust later in the session depending on expected comments later in the session from Philly Fed chief Patrick Harker or Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan.
With those monetary policy references on tap, odds for a rate hike in November were at 7.2% while the chance for a move in December stood at 64.8%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, oil surged after U.S. crude inventories registered a massive drawdown of 5.2 million barrels on Wednesday.
U.S. crude futures surged 2.78% to $51.69 by 11:48AM ET (15:48GMT), while Brent oil jumped 2.26% to $52.84.