By Anna Isaac 

U.S. stocks opened higher Tuesday, lifted by a series of better-than-expected earnings from companies ranging from Coca-Cola to United Technologies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 111 points, or 0.4%, to 27282 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4%.

More than 100 companies are set to report second-quarter results this week. So far, earnings have largely proven to be better than investors had feared, helping stocks drift higher in otherwise quiet summer trading.

Coca-Cola jumped 4.1% after reporting a rise in quarterly profit and sales, thanks to higher demand for its namesake soft drinks.

Shares in United Technologies climbed 2% after the company raised its outlook for the year as earnings and revenue in the latest quarter beat expectations.

Meanwhile, President Trump met with major technology companies at the White House on Monday to discuss restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei, a move seen as a step toward softening the U.S. stance on the blacklisted firm.

Separately, Congress struck a deal late Monday with the White House over spending, which would suspend the federal debt ceiling until the end of July 2021. The move effectively took the matter off the table until after the next presidential election.

In the U.K., as widely expected, Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and leading voice of the campaign to leave the European Union, won the Conservative competition for party leader and is now set to become the country's new prime minister.

The leadership change prompted a muted response from markets, with the British pound little changed. Derek Halpenny of MUFG Bank said that unless there were signs that support was ebbing away from Mr. Johnson, in the form of further cabinet resignations or parliamentary party defections, there would "not be much in terms of volatility in equities, currencies or bonds."

The positive mood in markets was gaining support both from central banks and cooling trade tensions, said Thushka Maharaj, global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Analysts expect a cut to interest rates from the Federal Reserve next week, and evidence of more stimulus from the European Central Bank on Thursday.

Still, a "sustained rally" across assets would require an improvement in underlying economic indicators, most particularly "manufacturing data across Europe and Asia," Ms. Maharaj said.

Shares in Spanish lender Banco Santander and Swiss bank UBS Group both rose, following their earnings reports. UBS's profit came in well ahead of expectations, and while Santander reported a tumble in net profit of 18% after costly restructuring efforts, this was largely in line with analysts' forecasts.

Asian markets also were up, with Shanghai up 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei up 1%.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2019 09:50 ET (13:50 GMT)

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