NEW YORK (AP) – Profits are climbing for companies, and so are their stock prices.
More big businesses joined the earnings parade Tuesday, saying they earned even more in the first three months of the year than analysts were expecting, including Caterpillar and McDonald’s. The gains put U.S. indexes on track to add to their big gains from Monday.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 15 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,389 as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed even more due to the big gains for Caterpillar and McDonald’s, which are both among the 30 stocks in the average. The Dow rose 230 points, or 1.1 percent, to 20,994. The Nasdaq composite rose 35, or 0.6 percent, to 6,019, its first move above 6,000 points.
PROFITS PILING HIGHER: After struggling for years with a slow global economy and weak oil prices, big U.S. businesses are in the midst of reporting their best quarter of profit growth in years, analysts say.