By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday, partly boosted by a round of solid bank earnings which helped put the Dow on track for its longest streak of daily gains in more than two years.
Morgan Stanley shares jumped after topping expectations as growth in its wealth management business offset lower trading revenue.
Bank of America gained after its profit beat expectations as it earned more from customers’ loan payments, while investment banking and trading fared better than expected.
Shares of other banks such as Bank of New York Mellon and PNC Financial also rose on Tuesday after they reported quarterly results.
“They are surprising. This morning all the banks reported, all beat earnings expectations and all except PNC beat revenue expectations,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
“I always hate to extrapolate the big bank earnings, which are always the first ones, to the rest of the market. We have a lot more coming here but earnings estimates have been brought down and banks are able to surprise.”
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 32.37 points, or 0.72%, to end at 4,555.16 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 108.69 points, or 0.76%, to 14,353.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 366.38 points, or 1.06%, to 34,951.30.
The Dow registered its seventh-straight session of gains, its longest streak since March 2021.
Some of the largest U.S. banks such as JP Morgan last week cited a profit boost from higher rates and indicated the economy remained resilient.
The S&P 500 banks index advanced to its highest intraday level since March 10, when the start of a mini-bank crisis created a sharp sell-off in the sector. The KBW regional banking index also climbed and touched its highest intraday level since March 22.
Charles Schwab shot higher as the best performer on the S&P 500 after the brokerage posted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit.
Technology was the best performing sector, as Microsoft shares hit a record high after announcing it would charge more to access new artificial intelligence features in its Office software.
Equities have rallied recently, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbing to 15-month highs on data showing economic resilience, cooling inflation and a solid labor market.
Data released early on Tuesday showed retail sales rose less than expected in June on a decline in building materials and service station receipts, although consumers boosted or maintained their spending levels. In addition, production at domestic factories unexpectedly fell during the month, but rebounded in the second quarter as motor vehicle output accelerated.
UnitedHealth bolstered the Dow as it climbed after Bernstein upgraded the health insurer to an “outperform” rating.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Richard Chang)
