Investing.com – The Dow hit 26,000 for the first time on Tuesday as strong earnings from Citigroup (NYSE:C) and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) helped Wall Street rise.
The S&P 500 rose 12 points or 0.44% to 2,798.44 as of 10:47 AM ET (15:47 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 185 points or 0.72% to 25,988.49, shortly below a morning high of 26,080.60 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was up over 50 points or 0.70% to 7,311.97.
Citigroup rose 0.98% after its earnings came in better than expected while UnitedHealth increased 2.32% on strong financial results. Meanwhile technology stocks surged, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) up 1.22% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) gaining 1.88%. Luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 2.18% while airplane maker Boeing (NYSE:BA) moved forward 2.59% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) jumped 1.16%. General Motors (NYSE:GM) was up 2.51% percent after the company said it expected earnings in 2018 to be flat, but would pick up again in 2019.
Elsewhere payments processor Square (NYSE:SQ) fell 2.81% while Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC:GBTC) slumped 9.29% as the price of cryptocurrencies fell by double digits and General Electric (NYSE:GE) decreased 3.41% amid news that it was taking a $6.2 billion charge from a legacy insurance portfolio.
In Europe stocks were mixed. In Germany the DAX rose 67 points or 0.52% while France’s CAC 40 increased two points or 0.04% and in London the FTSE 100 fell 23 points or 0.30%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was up 66 points or 0.64% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 rose five points or 0.14%.
In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.01% to $1,334.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.20% to $64.17 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.31% to 90.41.