By David Hodari and Amrith Ramkumar 

U.S. stocks climbed for the second consecutive session Wednesday, lifted by bank stocks as investors parsed the latest batch of corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 140 points, or 0.6%, to 24206. The S&P 500 added 0.4%. Both benchmarks closed at their highest level in a month Tuesday and have risen more than 10% since Christmas Eve, though they are still about 10% from last year's records. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5%.

Analysts say Chinese stimulus measures have improved sentiment toward global growth, helping stocks and other risky investments rebound following a fourth-quarter rout. Fourth-quarter earnings results also haven't been as weak as some investors feared, calming some jitters about a sharp economic slowdown.

Goldman Sachs shares rose 6.4% after the bank topped earnings targets, boosted by its mergers and acquisitions business.

Bank of America climbed 5.9% following its profit beat, the latest example of large lenders benefiting from the Federal Reserve's interest-rate increases.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are projected to increase 11% from a year earlier, according to FactSet, well below the levels in the first three quarters of 2018 but still strong enough to support stocks following last quarter's slide, some investors say.

"A big gap opened up where the valuations are quite appealing at these levels," said Emily Roland, head of capital markets research at John Hancock Investments. "Investors are starting to wade back in here."

Entering 2019, some analysts had feared that steadily rising rates would slow the economy and hurt profitability by increasing borrowing costs, but recent signals of caution from the Fed have also propelled the stock market's early-year rebound.

On Wednesday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 2.731%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.710% the previous day. Yields rise as prices fall and have stabilized lately following last quarter's slump.

BlackRock shares climbed 4.5%, also lifting financial stocks even though the world's largest money manager suffered its largest quarterly drop in assets under management in seven years.

In other sectors, United Continental shares surged 6.7% after the airline operator exceeded sales and profit projections in its latest quarter.

Many retailers fell after Nordstrom said full-price sales for the holiday period were below expectations and warned full-year earnings will come in at the low end of its previous outlook. Shares tumbled 7.6%.

Analysts were also monitoring technology and internet stocks, which have benefited from improved appetite for risk lately and mostly edged higher Wednesday. Netflix is slated to post earnings Thursday, after surging Tuesday following the news that the streaming company has raised prices for all of its subscription plans.

Despite worries including trade tensions and the ongoing partial U.S. government shutdown, some analysts said a pickup in earnings reports has helped investors focus on corporate results rather than fears about global growth.

In the current earnings season, "we expect some growth, and if the current geopolitical issues abate, we'll see the move back to fundamentals that investors want," said Christian Nolting, chief investment officer at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management.

Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.6%. British assets gave a tepid reaction to the U.K. parliament's overwhelming rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed Brexit deal late Tuesday.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei benchmark ticked 0.5% lower after hitting a four-week high Tuesday, while the Shanghai Composite Index was flat. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3%.

Write to David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com and Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 16, 2019 11:02 ET (16:02 GMT)

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