NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Tuesday and added to weekly gains for major indexes that have been mired in a broad slump amid inflation and recession concerns.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 11:37 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131 points, or 0.4%, to 30,319 and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.
Industrial companies and banks made solid gains. Lockheed Martin jumped 6.1% after reporting strong third-quarter earnings. Bank of America rose 2.1%.
The gains have softened after an earlier jump that sent almost all of the stocks in the S&P 500 higher. Its part of the latest knee-jerk motion in a market that has been moving erratically in recent weeks. Major indexes are still stuck in a bear market, which is when they’ve fallen at least 20% from their most recent all-time highs.
“High volatility is normal around the bottom of a bear market,” said Jeff Buchbinder, equity strategist for LPL Financial. “One reason we may be seeing markets hang in there a little bit better is that the narrative has switched to earnings from inflation and the Federal Reserve.”
Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 4.05% from 4.01% late Monday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to track expectations for future Federal Reserve action, rose to 4.47% from 4.45% late Monday.
The latest round of corporate earnings are a big focus for investors this week with little economic data expected. Investment bank Goldman Sachs rose 1.7% after delivering results that beat estimates. Streaming sports service FuboTV jumped 1.4% after giving investors an encouraging third-quarter update.
Health care giant Johnson & Johnson was mostly unchanged after reporting solid financial result s, but a narrowed forecast as it deals with a strong U.S. dollar cutting into sales outside the U.S.
Streaming entertainment giant Netflix and United Airlines are on deck to report their results later Tuesday. American Airlines, Union Pacific and American Express will report their results later this week.
Corporate earnings are the latest pieces of information Wall Street can use to try and get a better sense of the economy’s path ahead amid stubbornly hot inflation and growing recession fears. The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates in an effort to make borrowing more difficult and slow economic growth. The goal is to hit the brakes on the economy just enough to tame inflation, but the strategy risks slowing the economy too much and causing a recession.
“You have to stomach some volatility in the near term, but inflation is coming down,” Buchbinder said. “Work by the Fed and the markets has really improved the inflation outlook from here, if you can look three to six months out.”
Inflation has been cooling in some areas of the economy, but remains stubbornly hot. That has prompted the Fed to remain on track with its plan to continue increasing rates. The central bank has already raised its benchmark interest rate five times this year, with the last three increases by three-quarters of a percentage point. Wall Street expects another raise of three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting in November.
Markets in Europe and Asia rose. A release of China’s most recent economic growth figures due out Tuesday was postponed, removing one factor that had been expected to drive trading. No specific reason was given, but the GDP report might have conflicted with the confident tone of a Communist Party congress being held in Beijing.
