Stocks moved slightly higher in early trading Monday despite a handful of mixed earnings reports. Investors awaited companies’ earnings reports for clues about consumers’ mood and the economy’s health.
The toymaker Hasbro Inc., like many other companies, reported its third-quarter earnings rose as it cut costs, but said that its revenue fell. Gannett Co., the country’s largest newspaper publisher, also had a profitable quarter even with another big decline in ad revenue.
Later in the day, Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. are scheduled to release earnings.
Investors are anxious to see if companies from a broad range of industries fared better in the quarter than banks did.
In the first few minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 27.13, or 0.3 percent, at 10,023.04. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is rose 2.76, or 0.3 percent, to 1,090.44. The Nasdaq composite index rose 5.65, or 0.3 percent, at 2,162.45.
Disappointing earnings from Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Inc. chilled some of investors’ optimism last week. Their results showed that loan losses remain high meaning consumers and businesses are having trouble paying their bills.
Traders who had sent Dow over 10,000 for the first time in a year, questioned if reports still to be released by hundreds of companies would also point to a lackluster recovering economy. But some of that concern seemed to have faded by Monday.
Global markets were also focused on U.S. earnings reports, hoping for signs of economic strength.
Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.2 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.7 percent, Germany’s DAX index was up 1.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was up 1.1 percent.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.43 percent from 3.42 percent late Friday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.06 percent from 0.05 percent late Friday.
The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
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