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Stocks Move Sharply Higher in Early Trading After Upbeat Earnings
Reports
Wall Street moved sharply higher in early trading Thursday as
investors, having gotten over a bout of economic jitters in the
previous session, focused on mostly upbeat earnings reports.
Profit reports from companies like International Business Machines
Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Bank of America Corp. and
Continental Airlines Inc. helped send stocks higher. A strong
showing from business software maker SAP AG appeared to help
boost investors' appetite for technology issues.
Even with a crush of earnings reports to keep them busy, investors are still awaiting economic news. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke returns to Capitol Hill for the second day of his semiannual report to Congress and the Fed is scheduled to release minutes
from the June meeting of its Open Market Committee. At the
meeting, the central bank left short-term interest rates unchanged as it has done for the past year and reiterated its concerns about
inflation.
Stocks appeared to be extending a partial recovery that started
late Wednesday, when the Dow Jones industrial average pulled
itself up from a loss of 134 points and ended with just a 53-point
deficit.
In early trading Thursday, the Dow rose 95.52, or 0.69 percent, to 14.013.74. The blue chip index climbed above the 14,000 mark for the first time on Tuesday, though it did not close above that
psychological benchmark. |
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