Stocks Gain, Spurred by Corporate Deals, Earnings
October 24 2016 - 2:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Riva Gold and Daniel Huang
U.S. stocks rose Monday as companies unleashed a fresh round of
deals and earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 64 points, or 0.4%, to
18210. The S&P 500 gained 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose
0.8%.
Technology shares rose broadly, helping lift the Nasdaq and
leading gains in the S&P 500.
B/E Aerospace surged 16% after Rockwell Collins reached a deal
to buy it. T-Mobile US added 7.9% after announcing increased
profits and market share in the most recent quarter.
Monday's moves came after the S&P 500 snapped a two-week
losing streak on Friday following deal talks and
better-than-expected earnings. By the end of this week, 292
companies in the S&P 500 are expected to have reported
earnings, according to FactSet.
"It's all about earnings right now," said Bill Northey, chief
investment officer at the Private Client Group at U.S. Bank, noting
company performance rather than macroeconomic developments has been
the key driver of stock markets in recent sessions.
Mergers also have been fueling moves.
Shares of TD Ameritrade lost 3.2% after the company said it
agreed to buy Scottrade Financial Services in a $4 billion deal.
Shares of AT&T declined 1.6% after it reached an agreement to
buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion, while shares of Time Warner
dropped 2.7%.
"This is an environment where corporations are looking into the
future -- where interest rates are moving up -- and they're using
this as an opportunity to better position themselves in a low-rate
environment," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston
Private Wealth. Companies can borrow more cheaply at low rates in
order to fund acquisitions.
U.S. government bonds pulled back Monday, with the yield on the
10-year Treasury note rising to 1.768% from 1.740% Friday. Yields
move inversely to prices.
Spanish assets led gains in Europe after the country ended its
10-month leadership impasse on Sunday as Mariano Rajoy was assured
of re-election as prime minister. Spain's IBEX 35 index gained
1.3%.
"It's a mini-step forward potentially in Spain," said David
Lloyd, head of institutional fund management for fixed income at
M&G Investments, but more broadly, "the issue of political
uncertainty is just about everywhere you look," he said.
European bank shares continued to perform well after a strong
week, with the Euro Stoxx Banks index rising 2.7% Monday. Spanish
lenders were among the best performers, with shares of Banco
Popular Español up 4.2% and Banco Santander up 3.7%.
Germany's DAX index added 0.5% and closed at its highest level
of the year, while the Stoxx Europe 600 fell less than 0.1%.
Earlier, stocks in Asia were mostly higher, led by a 1.2% rise
in the Shanghai Composite Index. Shares in Hong Kong climbed 1%,
while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average inched up 0.3% after data showed
Japanese exports fell for a 12th consecutive month, but at a slower
pace.
In commodities, U.S. crude oil fell 2% to $49.86 a barrel after
Iraq signaled it wanted to be excluded from OPEC's production cut
plan.
Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com and Daniel Huang at
dan.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 24, 2016 13:55 ET (17:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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