Wall Street rallies again, erases more April losses

NEW YORK >> U.S. stocks rallied for a second straight day Tuesday to blunt the blow of what's been a rough April.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.2% and pulled further out of the hole created by a six-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 263 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.6%.

A weaker-than-expected report on U.S. business activity helped support the market, which remains in an awkward phase. The hope on Wall Street is for the economy to avoid a severe recession, but not to stay so hot that it keeps upward pressure on inflation.

The preliminary report from S&P Global released Tuesday seemed to hit that sweet spot. Treasury yields eased in the bond market, and stocks added to gains immediately after its release.

A flood of earnings reports also dictated much of trading, highlighted by a slew of companies that topped analysts' expectations.

GE Aerospace flew 8.3% higher after it raised its profit forecast for the full year, in addition to beating expectations for first-quarter earnings.

Kimberly-Clark gained 5.5% after the maker of Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex also raised its earnings forecast for the full year. General Motors revved up by 4.4% after citing sales of pickup trucks and other higherprofit vehicles. Danaher rose 7.2% after pointing to strength in its bioprocessing and molecular diagnostics businesses.

They helped overshadow an 8.9% drop for Nucor after the steelmaker fell short of forecasts for both profit and revenue.

MSCI, whose investment indexes guide much of the industry, fell 13.4% after reporting weaker revenue growth than expected. Invesco sank 6.4% after falling short of expectations for both earnings and revenue.

JetBlue Airways lost 18.8% despite topping expectations for the latest quarter. Its forecasts for upcoming revenue came up short of what some analysts expected, and it said competition in Latin America could weigh on its results.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 59.95 points to 5,070.55. The Dow gained 263.71 to 38,503.69, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 245.33 to 15,696.64.

The market's main event may have arrived after trading finished for the day. Tesla reported its results for the first three months of the year, becoming the first to do so among the “Magnificent Seven” stocks that accounted for most of last year's gains for the S&P 500.