Energy, Banks Push Wall St Higher

A rise in energy and financial stocks pushed Wall Street higher on Wednesday, but a drop in consumer staples and Intel limited gains, especially on the Nasdaq.Intel tumbled nearly 6 percent and was the biggest drag on all three indexes, after the chipmaker’s disappointing current-quarter revenue forecast.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index dipped 0.8 percent. Oil prices surged more than 2 percent after a report showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.The energy sector jumped 1.64 percent, the most in three weeks, also boosted by a 5.2 percent rise in Halliburton following its surprise quarterly profit.

Morgan Stanley inched up 0.2 percent after its results rounded off a strong quarter for big U.S. banks.

The financial sector has gained 1 percent since Thursday, a day before the banks started reporting, while the KBW bank index is up 2.1 percent.

Through Tuesday, earnings from S&P 500 companies had largely beaten market expectations, putting them on track to post profit growth for the first time in five quarters. Analysts now estimate earnings increased 0.2 percent in the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“We would see the third quarter as the bottoming out of the earnings recession that we have been experiencing for the last year or so,” said Tracy Maeter, global investment specialist, J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Philadelphia. “But it’s likely to be a little bit noisy with a lot of dispersion across the sectors.”

At 11:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 76.12 points, or 0.42 percent, at 18,238.06.

The S&P 500 was up 6.62 points, or 0.31 percent, at 2,146.22 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.83 points, or 0.07 percent, at 5,247.67. Five of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with the consumer staples’ 0.6 percent drop the steepest.

The Federal Reserve is due to release its Beige Book at about 2:00 p.m. ET, giving anecdotal commentary on the health of the U.S. economy. The third and final U.S. presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton starts later in the evening. The stock market had gained on both days after the previous two debates, which were perceived to be won by Clinton.

“The noise in the marketplace around politics can drive stocks in the short term, but in terms of the underlying influence … that’s going to be driven more by the economy and the profitability of companies,” Maeter said.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,949 to 861. On the Nasdaq, 1,420 issues rose and 1,100 fell. The S&P 500 showed seven new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 37 new lows.

Energy, Banks Push Wall St Higher