Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Tuesday, boosted by a positive balance on earnings reports, with profits now expected to have registered a slight gain in the third quarter, and after core inflation eased, reducing pressure on the Federal Reserve (Fed) to take imminent action on interest rates.
At 11:57AM ET (15:57GMT), the Dow Jones gained 108 points, or 0.60%, the S&P 500 rose 18 points, or 0.83% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 61 points, or 1.18%.
Year-on-year, the consumer price index (CPI) increased in September to its highest level in almost two-years. At 1.5%, the reading was in line with forecasts.
Meanwhile, core inflation unexpectedly eased to an annualized rate of 2.2%. Core prices are viewed by the Fed as a better gauge of longer-term inflationary pressure because they exclude the volatile food and energy categories.
The odds for a rate hike in December ticked down to 64.4% after the data was released, compared to 69.2% the previous day, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
November was largely dismissed by analysts as a possibility due to the proximity of the U.S. presidential elections. The probability for a move next month dropped to 6.2% from 7.2% the prior day.
Meanwhile, earnings being priced in on Tuesday were showing a mostly positive balance.
Amid Dow components reporting, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) led the blue-chip index higher with gains of nearly 7% after the largest U.S. health insurer beat consensus and lifted its 2016 guidance.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was the second largest advancer with gains of nearly 2% after the bank saw profit jump 58% on a surge in trading revenues.
However, IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) led the decliners on the Dow with losses of 3.5% and 2%, respectively.
Although both firms beat estimates, the tech services firm appeared to cause concern after posting its 18th consecutive decline in revenue, while the selloff in J&J may be chalked up to news that Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) was planning to start selling a biosimilar form of its biggest product at a 15% discount in November.
In earnings outside the blue-chip index, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stole headlines with a 19% jump in shares as the online television service said it added much more subscribers than estimated in the third quarter, proving its bet on original programming was a winner.
Domino’s Pizza also saw shares surge nearly 7% after comparable sales surged 12.9%, beating analyst estimates.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) are among companies reporting after the close.
Meanwhile, oil underwent choppy trade on Tuesday as investors weighed the possibility of major oil producers reaching an agreement over curbing output.
Headlines that Saudi Arabian crude exports fell to 7.305 million barrels in August, from 7.622 million in the prior month, may initially have sent crude prices higher, though details that it was a drop from record highs hit due to seasonal summer demand may have cooled the bullish sentiment.
Additionally, the secretary general for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Mohammed Barkindo showed optimism on Tuesday that major oil producers could reach an agreement on production to help reduce the global supply glut.
Barkindo pointed the Committee set to meet on October 28-29 in Vienna to discuss output quotas and confirmed that non-OPEC countries would also attend, confirming that Russia was firm in its pledge to contribute.
“We expect that all the building blocks will be in place in a timely fashion for the implementation,” Barkindo said referring to the official OPEC meeting to be held on November 30.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.16% to $50.02 by 11:58AM ET (15:58GMT), while Brent oil slipped 0.06% to $51.49.