Stocks Have Smooth Ride on Tuesday

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Earnings reports continue to keep stocks flying at a steady altitude.

The major American stock indices had an easy day on Tuesday, after Monday’s traumatic, late-day selloff.  The flow of positive earnings reports continued as the vast majority of companies already reporting quarterly earnings have beaten analysts’ estimates.  Nevertheless, after Tuesday’s closing bell a miss was reported by Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN).  Among the companies with good news on Tuesday were Chesapeake Energy (NYSEARCA:CHK) and Fossil (NASDAQ:FOSL).  MGM Resorts (NYSEARCA:MGM) beat its number, with a lower-than-expected loss, resulting in an 7.46 percent share price advance for the day.

At the closing bell, the Dow picked up 51 points to reach 13,168 for a gain of 0.31 percent.  The S&P 500 achieved an identical 0.51 percent gain for the day, maintaining its flight level above 1,400 until the end of the session, closing at 1,401 (NYSEARCA:SPY).  The Nasdaq held a strong gain of 0.87 percent to finish at 3,015 (NASDAQ:QQQ) and the Russell 2000 topped that with a 0.88 percent advance, finishing the day at 801 (NYSEARCA:IWM).

In Europe, stocks did surprisingly well, despite a number of awful reports on industrial production in Europe (NYSEARCA:VGK).  The Euro STOXX 50 Index finished Monday’s session with a huge, 1.71 percent gain.  The FTSE 100 Index managed to achieve a 0.56% advance.

European ETFs did well on Tuesday, The iShares Germany Index (NYSEARCA:EWG) picked up 0.58 percent.  The iShares Spain Index (NYSEARCA:EWP) gained a whopping 2.45 percent.  The iShares Italy Index (NYSEARCA:EWI) jumped 2.16 percent despite an Istat report that Italy’s second-quarter GDP declined 2.5 percent from the second quarter of 2011.

As of 5:22 EDT, the euro declined 0.02% against the dollar, trading at $1.2397 (NYSEARCA:FXE).

Spain’s ten-year bond yield climbed as high as 6.84 percent on Tuesday from Monday’s closing level of 6.72 percent (NYSEARCA:EWP).

Italy’s ten-year bond yield climbed as high as 6.10 percent on Tuesday from Monday’s closing level of 6.03 percent (NYSEARCA:EWI).

On London’s ICE Futures Europe Exchange, September futures for Brent Crude Oil advanced by $1.99 (1.84%) to $110.17/bbl. (NYSEARCA:USO).

August gold futures declined by $1.70 (0.11%) to $1,611.20 per ounce (NYSEARCA:GLD).

On Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association will release its Mortgage Purchase Applications Index.

Bottom line:  The major American stock indices continue to hold their gains as the vast majority of companies reporting earnings this quarter have beaten analysts’ expectations.

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