Investing.com - U.S. stocks rose on Friday applauding a fresh batch of positive third-quarter earnings, which gave investors room to shrug off soft home sales data and a new case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States.
At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow 30 rose 0.76%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.71%, while the NASDAQ Composite index rose 0.69%.
The CBOE Volatility Index index, which measures the outlook for market volatility, was down 2.54% at 16.11.
Stocks rose as investors cheered better-than-expected earnings from Microsoft and Procter & Gamble one day after 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) beat consensus forecasts, giving investors room to shrug off soft home sales data.
The Census Bureau reported earlier that U.S. new home sales rose 0.2% in September to 467,000 units, missing expectations for an increase to 470,000 units.
The August figure was downwardly revised to a 15.3% climb to 466,000 units from a previously estimated 18.0% jump to 504,000 units.
Still, a longer-range view of economic indicators still points to a sustained U.S. recovery, including in the housing sector.
Earlier in the week, the National Association of Realtors reported that U.S. existing home sales increased 2.4% to a 5.17 million units last month from 5.05 million in August. Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 1% to 5.10 million units in September.
Elsewhere, a doctor who recently returned from Guinea tested positive for Ebola in New York City, though expectations for authorities to contain the virus gave investors room to focus on earnings and stocks room to rise.
Leading Dow Jones Industrial Average performers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), up 2.45%, 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), up 2.44%, and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), up 2.31%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst performers included Visa Inc (NYSE:V), down 0.39%, Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), down 0.26%, and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), down 0.08%.
European indices, meanwhile, ended the day lower.
After the close of European trade, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.36%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.69%, while Germany's DAX fell 0.66%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 fell 0.47%.