Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Tuesday, as upbeat earnings helped markets rally ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
The S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.32%, to 2,747.20 as of 9:41 AM ET (14:41 GMT), while the Dow increased 51 points, or 0.20%, to 25,513.11 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 51 points, or 0.71%, to 7,380.66.
Market sentiment rose after better-than-expected earnings results from companies. CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) rose 2.18% after its third-quarter results topped estimates, while Pandora Media (NYSE:P) gained 0.98% after reporting a narrower loss than expected and Booking Holdings (NASDAQ:BKNG) jumped 6.96% after its outlook for the fourth quarter was revised higher.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was up 0.91%, while General Electric (NYSE:GE) increased 1.4% and semiconductor company Micron (NASDAQ:MU) gained 1.4%.
Elsewhere, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 0.20%, while Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) fell 2.60% despite its earnings coming in higher than expected.
Meanwhile, investors are waiting for results from the U.S. midterm elections, with preliminary results expected during evening hours and final results in the early morning on Wednesday.
Polls show the Democratic Party could win control of the House of Representatives, while the Republican Party is likely to hold onto the Senate. If Republicans retain majority of the House, stocks are likely to rally, while a sweep by Democrats could cause a selloff.
In commodities, gold futures increased 0.29% to $1,233.40 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures rose 0.16% to $63.20 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.06% to 96.23.