U.S. Stocks Jump a Second Day on Strong Earnings Reports

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after strong earnings from Goldman Sachs and an activist stake in Salesforce set a positive tone for the trading session.

At 10:17 ET (14:17 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 509 points, or 1.7%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.8% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 2%.

Investors have been worrying about how the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes would affect revenue and profit at the biggest U.S. companies, with more than 60 S&P companies reporting this week.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) rose 5% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit on a boost from net interest income, as other banks have also reported. That helped ease the lackluster quarter for investment banking. 

Shares of Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) jumped 6.4% after Starboard’s Jeff Smith told CNBC his firm had taken a significant stake in the enterprise software maker.

Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) also beat expectations for third-quarter revenue and profit, with a boost from demand for its cancer treatment. Its shares were down 0.4%.

Analysts entered this earnings season on a cautious footing. Wall Street is expecting the S&P to post a 3% gain in profit from last year, which is lower than previous expectations. 

Many analysts are awaiting earnings from Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) after tonight’s closing bell. Its shares were up ahead of that report. United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) also reports later today. 

Oil fell. Crude Oil WTI Futures fell 2.2% to $82.67 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude fell 1.7%, to $90.08 a barrel. Gold Futureswas down 0.4%, to $1656.