Quarterly reports are boon for stocks

Solid gains among phone companies and some retailers helped nudge U.S. stocks higher yesterday, a day after the stock market had its biggest drop in eight months.

The rally came a day after the market’s worst drop since September as political tumult deepened in Washington, stoking worries among investors that President Trump may have trouble enacting tax cuts and o th e r business - friendly policies. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.69 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 2,365.72, The Dow Jones industrial average added 56.09 points, or 0.3 percent, to 20,663.02 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 43.89 points, or 0.7 percent, to 6,055.13.

Despite the day’s gains, the major stock indexes were still on course to end the week in the red.

Stocks appeared headed for another down day early yesterday following overnight sell-offs in Asia and Europe. But better-thanexpected quarterly earnings results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and retailers such as L Brands helped lift the market. Traders also welcomed data from the Labor Department showing that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nearly three months.

Among other big movers: Incyte surged 6.9 percent on growing analyst optimism over the biopharmaceutical company’s work developing cancer treatments, Ascena Retail Group sank 27 percent after the retailer cut its forecast for its fiscal third quarter and full year and Cisco Systems fell 7.2 percent a day after the internet gear maker said it expects revenue in its fiscal third quarter to be down from a year earlier.

The euro slipped to $1.1101 from $1.1150 on Wednesday. The dollar strengthened to 111.49 yen from 111.11 yen.