By Kristina Peterson, MarketWatch , Tomi Kilgore
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday, as strong earnings from the technology sector and a bigger-than-expected rise in existing-home sales sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a nearly three-year high Wednesday.
The Dow /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed DJIA +0.42% rose 186.79 points, or 1.52%, to 12453.54, its highest closing level since June 5, 2008.
Why Wall Street got Intel wrong
According to the chip maker, the company's strong earnings numbers stem from discrepancies in how PC sales are tallied, namely in emerging markets.
Intel Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!intc/quotes/nls/intc INTC +0.23% shares led the Dow with a 7.8% jump after the chip maker posted first-quarter earnings and revenue above analysts’ expectations, along with a second-quarter revenue outlook that topped Wall Street estimates. Read more on Intel.
United Technologies Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!utx/quotes/nls/utx UTX +1.40% rose 4.3%, also supporting the Dow, as the maker of elevators and airplane engines posted first-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations on strong revenue growth and margin expansion. Read more on United Tech shares.
Earnings from Dow-component International Business Machines /quotes/comstock/13*!ibm/quotes/nls/ibm IBM +2.14% also exceeded expectations, but the technology giant’s shares slipped 0.4% as the company didn’t lift its full-year forecast by as much as some investors had hoped, and services signings disappointed. Read more on IBM.
Dollar tumbles on Fed predictions: Currency hits multiyear lows against rivals as worries about fiscal- and monetary-policy outlook give investors cold feet.
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The Nasdaq Composite /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp COMP 0.00% jumped 57.54, or 2.10%, to 2,802.51, its biggest one-day percentage gain since Oct. 5.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x SPX 0.00% added 17.74, or 1.35%, to 1,330.36. The technology sector led the advance, as the stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue growth from Intel and IBM boosted sentiment for the quarterly results to come from others in the sector.
Shares of Apple, which released its first-quarter numbers after Wednesday’s close, climbed 1.4%. Read more on Apple.
U.S. economic data also provided a lift after the National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales increased 3.7% in March from February. Economists had expected a smaller increase. Read more on home sales.
The U.S. dollar sank against both the yen /quotes/comstock/21o!x:susdjpy USDYEN +0.0122% and the euro /quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd EURUSD 0.0000% . The U.S. Dollar Index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0 DXY +0.15% , which tracks the currency against a basket of others, fell 0.7%. Read more on currencies.
Wednesday’s climb in U.S. stocks followed gains in European and Asian markets. It also helped the Dow, Nasdaq Composite and S&P; 500 erase their declines from Monday, when Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut its outlook on U.S. government debt.
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| April 22, 2011 | Fed, Bernanke on investors’ radar next week | |
| April 21, 2011 | U.S. stocks extend streak on strong earnings | |
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