Skip navigation
Newswire

U.S. stocks rise, Boeing leads with big jet order

(Updates to early morning)

By Bill Rigby

NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday as confidence in corporate earnings and sound economic data outweighed lingering concerns over the prospect of higher interest rates.

Boeing Co. led the Dow after it received an order for 50 7E7 Dreamliners, its new flagship passenger jet.

"Earnings have been astounding," said Chris Wolfe, head of equities at J.P. Morgan's private bank. "There also seems to be a fair bit of momentum carried into the second quarter as most pre-announcements have been positive."

Monday marked the fourth straight session of gains for the main indexes. Each moved up last week as a string of industry leaders like Microsoft Corp. surpassed Wall Street's best hopes.

Data continues to show the U.S. economy's recovery is on track. Sales of U.S. homes rocketed to a record high in March, a government report showed on Monday, defying expectations of slower home buying as shoppers leaped at the chance to buy before mortgage interest rates rise.

Sales of new homes jumped 8.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual 1.228 million annual pace in the month from a revised 1.128 million in February, the Commerce Department said.

By early morning, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 33.57 points, or 0.32 percent, at 10,506.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.19 points, or 0.37 percent, at 1,144.79. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was up 8.88 points, or 0.43 percent, at 2,058.65.

The first-quarter earnings season is turning out to be a phenomenal quarter for American companies. So far 77 percent of the 274 S&P components that have reported have beaten Wall Street's average forecasts.

Wall Street now expects S&P 500 earnings to grow 20.1 percent for the quarter over last year, a much bigger gain than the 14.6 percent growth analysts predicted when the reporting season began.

Boeing shares were up 97 cents, or 2.3 percent, at $43.44 after Japan's All Nippon Airways ordered 50 7E7 Dreamliners from the aerospace giant, marking the single largest launch order in its history.

Genentech Inc. jumped as a late-stage clinical trial showed Tarceva, a joint drug project with Swiss health-care group Roche Holding AG , helped patients with advanced lung cancer live longer than those getting a placebo. Genentech shares rose $13.19, or 11 percent, to $131.38.

TXU Corp. rose sharply after it sold more than $4.2 billion in assets in Texas and Australia and bought back preferred shares in deals to cut debt. Its shares jumped $3.75, or 12.6 percent, to $33.88.