Dow rises 100 points after strong earnings - CNBC

Stocks traded higher on Tuesday as investors cheered strong earnings from companies like UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113 points, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% as the health-care sector outperformed. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%.

"This is definitely based upon earnings beats," said Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial. "We're seeing some serious earnings being reported. That's relieved the market because there was some anxiety heading into the season."

Tuesday's move pushed the S&P 500 closer to 2,940, a record high set in late September.

"The catalyst we needed to test that 2,940 all-time high was earning," Kilburg said. "If we continue to see earnings beat expectations, we're going to see new all-time high put in."

UnitedHealth Group reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue. The company also raised its earnings guidance for the full year. Shares of UnitedHealth rose about 3% before trading about 0.5% higher.

Johnson & Johnson, another Dow component, climbed 2.9% on stronger-than-forecast quarterly results. More than half of its revenue came from prescription drug sales, which increased by more than 4%.

Other companies that posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings include Bank of America and BlackRock. IBM, Netflix, and CSX are among the companies set to report after Tuesday's close.

Equities also got a boost from dovish remarks made by Federal Reserve officials. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said the central bank does not need to adjust monetary policy at the moment, noting: "We have to continue to watch what's happening with financial stability issues."

Rosengren's remarks follow Chicago Fed President Charles Evans telling CNBC that rates can stay unchanged until the fall of 2020. "For me, that's to help support the inflation outlook and make sure it's sustainable," he said.

The S&P 500 is up more than 15% this year in large part because the Fed indicated it may not raise rates at all in 2019, a stark contrast to the four hikes from last year.

With the Fed and other central banks being "more dovish than ever," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink thinks stocks could experience a "melt-up."

"Despite where the markets are in equities, we have not seen money being put to work," Fink told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "We have record amounts of money in cash. We still see outflows in retail in equities and in institutions."

—CNBC's Silvia Amaro contributed to this report.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/16/stock-market-earnings-in-focus---bank-of-america-blackrock-to-report.html

2019-04-16 13:45:07Z
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