FILE - The front of the New York Stock Exchange is shown on Thursday, April 11, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks are ticking higher on Wall Street and adding to their hot start to the week. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% in early trading on Tuesday, pulling further out of the hole created by a six-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 105 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6%. A flood of earnings reports is dictating trading. General Motors climbed after topping forecasts thanks to sales of pickup trucks and other higher-profit vehicles. Nucor dropped after the steelmaker fell short of forecasts for both profit and revenue. Tesla reports its results after the close of trading.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street pointed modestly higher early Tuesday as markets prepare to digest another heavy slate of corporate earnings.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1% higher before the opening bell, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.
General Motors rose 4.5% after the automaker reported that its first-quarter net income rose more than 25% on strong deliveries of pickup trucks and other higher-profit vehicles. Despite a slight dip un U.S. auto sales, GM easily beat Wall Street’s profit forecasts and raised its full-year earnings guidance.
Despite beating analysts sales and profit targets, PepsiCo shares were flat before markets opened. PepsiCo reported better-than-expected revenue in the first quarter on strong international demand for its snacks and beverages.
JetBlue shares tumbled more than 10% after the airline posted another decline in sales and lowered its revenue outlook for the year.
Electric car maker Tesla, which has seen its shares decline 43% this year, reports its first-quarter financial results after the bell Tuesday. The Elon Musk-owned automaker has cut prices on its cars several times this year due to flagging demand.
About a third of the companies in the S&P 500 this week are scheduled to say how much they made during the year’s first three months. That includes companies that have come to be known as part of the “Magnificent Seven,” beyond Tesla and Alphabet.
Even more pressure than usual is on companies broadly to deliver fatter profits and revenue. That’s because the other big factor that sets stock prices, interest rates, looks unlikely to offer much help in the near term.
Top officials at the Federal Reserve warned last week that they may need to keep interest rates high for a while in order to ensure inflation is heading down to their 2% target. That was a big letdown for financial markets, dousing hopes that had built after the Fed signaled earlier that three interest-rate cuts may come this year.
Lower rates had appeared to be on the horizon after inflation cooled sharply last year. But a string of reports this year showing inflation has remained hotter than expected has raised worries about stalled progress.
In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 hit a record high early Tuesday as the index surged 0.5% to 8,061.61, surpassing its previous peak in February 2023. By midday, the FTSE had retreated slightly, but was still up 0.2% at 8,036.02.
Germany’s DAX was 1% higher and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.5%.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 37,552.16, despite the country’s manufacturing activity contracting for 11 straight months while approaching the break-even point in April.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.9% to 16,820.51 while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.7% to 3,021.98.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 7,683.50. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.2% to 2,623.02.
U.S. benchmark crude gave up 61 cents to $81.29 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 57 cents to $86.43 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 154.79 Japanese yen from 154.84 yen. The euro rose to $1.0676 from $1.0653.
On Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, recovering more than a quarter of last week’s rout. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7% and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.1%.
