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BUSINESSWednesday 17 February
US stocks rise for the second day in a row in broad rally
MARLEY JAY Traders Jonathan Corpina, left, and Kevin Lodewick, center, work with specialist Mario Picone on seven years after the com-
AP Markets Writer the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. pany posted a stronger-
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks than-expected quarterly
closed broadly higher as (AP Photo/Richard Drew) profit and raised its fore-
the market notched its cast for the year. Its stock
second sizable gain in a points, or 2.3 percent, to ed an offer from investment percent, to $521.10. Home climbed $2.94, or 7.1 per-
row. Retail and industrial 4,435.96. company Apollo Global Depot rose $3.11, or 2.7 cent, to $44.44. It’s up 60
stocks made the biggest The S&P 500 had climbed Management worth $42 percent, to $119.43 and percent over the last year.
gains as they were lifted by 2 percent on Friday. It had per share, or $6.94 billion. competitor Lowe’s gained Restaurant Brands, the
company earnings, some been two months since Its stock rose $12.77, or 47.5 $2.56, or 3.9 percent, to parent company of Burg-
good news from China’s the S&P 500 rose at least 1 percent, to $39.64. Apollo $67.43. Hormel, the maker er King and Tim Hortons,
economy, and hope that percent for two consecu- Global added 72 cents, or of Spam and Dinty Moore jumped $1.81, or 5.7 per-
Japan’s struggling econo- tive days. The U.S. market 5.4 percent, to $14.12. stew among other foods, cent, to $33.82 after the
my will get another boost. was closed Monday for the Amazon rose $14.02, or 2.8 had its best day in almost company said an impor-
Indexes were higher all day Presidents Day holiday. tant sales measurement
and almost matched the ADT surged after the home rose at both of its chains in
big gains they made on security company accept- the fourth quarter.
Friday. Strong quarterly re- Hospital stocks tumbled af-
sults gave some company ter Community Health Sys-
stocks a boost and inves- tems said admissions de-
tors worried a bit less about creased in the fourth quar-
China and Japan. ter. That’s partly because it
For a change, stocks trad- had more patients last year
ed higher even though the with respiratory illnesses
price of oil slumped. Inves- and the flu. The company
tors were skeptical that took a loss as it absorbed
OPEC nations will sign off impairment charges and
on a deal to freeze pro- set aside more money to
duction, so U.S. crude sank cover unpaid bills.
after a big rally on Friday. The stock plunged $4.12, or
The Dow Jones industrial 22.1 percent, to $14.56.
average added 222.57 It’s been a bad couple of
points, or 1.4 percent, to weeks for company earn-
16,196.41. The Standard & ings. Three-fourths of the
Poor’s 500 index rose 30.80 companies listed on the
points, or 1.7 percent, S&P 500 have reported
to 1,895.58. The Nasdaq their quarterly results, and
composite climbed 98.44 earnings are expected to
fall almost 5 percent com-
pared with a year ago, ac-
cording to S&P Capital IQ.
That’s mostly because of
plunging oil prices, which
are pummeling energy
company profits.
Analyst Lindsey Bell of
S&P Global Markets Intel-
ligence says that we’re in
the middle of a cycle that
will see S&P 500 profits fall
for four quarters in a row,
but the market is focused
on other issues, including
concerns about the health
of China’s economy and
central bank policy.
“You don’t hear a lot of
people talking about how
we’re going to have a
nearly five-percent decline
in earnings,” she said.
Bell says earnings will start
growing again later this
year because companies
have lowered the bar. Still,
analysts are swiftly lower-
ing their estimates for 2016.
She says analysts now ex-
pect earnings growth of
2.9 percent, down from
7.4 percent at the start of
2016.q
