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BUSINESS Tuesday 29 OcTOber 2019
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S&P 500 on track for record high in busy week of earnings

By ALEX VEIGA which help set interest rates LPL Financial. "October 28
Associated Press for mortgages and other is historically the best day
Stocks marched higher on loans. of the year for stocks," he
Wall Street in afternoon Investors continued to pore said in a note to investors.
trading Monday, extend- over company earnings According to Detrick, the
ing the market's gains into reports Monday. Some 156 average gain on Oct. 28 is
a fourth week and driving companies in the S&P 500 0.54% which would give the
the S&P 500 on track for an are scheduled to issue their S&P 500 a close of 3,038.87.
all-time high. quarterly results this week. The Dow Jones Industrial
The rally comes at the be- Google parent Alphabet Average rose 135 points, or
ginning of a busy week of was due to issue its results 0.5%, to 27,093. The Dow is
corporate earnings, new later Monday. still about 1% below its re-
economic data and ex- The company news, in ad- cord set on July 15.
pectations of another inter- dition to new economic The Nasdaq climbed 1%.
est rate cut by the Federal data on housing, consumer In this Oct. 7, 2019, file photo specialist Patrick King, left, and The Russell 2000 index of
Reserve. confidence and hiring will trader Fred DeMarco work on the floor of the New York Stock smaller company stocks
Technology, health care give investors a clearer di- Exchange. also rose 1%.
and communication ser- agnosis of the economy's Associated Press FULL WEEK: The market
vices stocks were powering health. Traders will also could be in for a more
the market's latest gains, closely watch the Fed's broad gains for communi- p.m. Eastern time, about 14 volatile ride this week. Al-
outweighing losses in real latest decision on interest cations companies. points above the record set phabet, Google's parent
estate, utilities and house- rates Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year on July 26. company, reports earnings
hold goods makers. Energy Microsoft rose after win- Treasury rose to 1.85% from The market could also have results later Monday. Gen-
stocks also fell as crude oil ning a Pentagon contract. 1.80% late Friday. history on its side today, ac- eral Motors and drugmak-
prices headed lower. Banks Other technology compa- The S&P 500 rose 17 points, cording to Ryan Detrick, ers Merck and Pfizer release
rose along with bond yields, nies also climbed. AT&T led or 0.6%, to 3,040 as of 2:26 senior market strategist for results on Tuesday.q

Smash sandwiches boost Restaurant Brands sales in US

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN chicken restaurants, which pointing quarter for another
Associated Press had its own hit sandwich of the Toronto company's
Burger King reported its best during the quarter. restaurants, Tim Horton's,
comparable stores sales On Monday, after numer- which reported a 1.4% de-
increase in the U.S. in four ous restaurants sold out of cline in comparable sales.
years thanks to brisk sales the popular chicken sand- Shares slid more than 3%
of Impossible Whopper. wich over the summer, the Monday. Restaurant Brands
Burger King's parent com- chain said it's bringing the earned $201 million, or 75
pany, Restaurant Brands sandwich back to restau- cents per share, for the pe-
International Inc., began rants on Sunday. riod ended Sept. 30. That
selling the plant-based Popeye's had comparable compares with $134 mil-
burger in late summer after sales growth of more than lion, or 53 cents per share,
a strong response to limited 10% in the U.S., among its a year earlier.
testing. best quarters in two de- Stripping out one-time
The popularity of the burg- cades. items, earnings were 72
er helped push U.S. same- The strong performances cents per share. That's in line
store sales up 5%. from Burger King and Pop- with the expectations of This July 31, 2019, file photo shows an Impossible Whopper burg-
er at a Burger King restaurant in Alameda, Calif.
The Toronto company also eye's, however, were not analysts surveyed by Zacks Associated Press
owns the Popeye's chain of enough to offset a disap- Investment Research.q