NEW YORK – Stocks advanced for the second straight session yesterday, as another decline in oil prices and several upbeat profit reports eased some of Wall Street's concerns about the economy.
Oil is down more than $20 a barrel since hitting a record above $147 just weeks ago. A barrel of light, sweet crude fell more than $3 to settle at $124.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
AT&T Inc., McDonald's Corp. and Pfizer Inc., all among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, weighed in with reports that generally pleased investors.
“Oil is a positive, but I think bigger than that is the earnings news is not as catastrophic as people were thinking,” said Noman Ali, portfolio manager of U.S. equities for MFC Global Investment Management in Toronto. “Some of the bellwethers are reporting earnings that are better-than-expected. And outside of the financials, things aren't so bad.”
The Dow closed up 29.88, or 0.26 percent, to 11,632.38 after rising nearly 100 points in the session. On Tuesday, the blue chips gained 135 points.
Broader stock indicators also advanced yesterday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.19, or 0.41 percent, to 1,282.19; and the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index rose 21.92, or 0.95 percent, to 2,325.88.
Nasdaq's gains came ahead of a report from Amazon.com Inc., which said after the closing bell that its second-quarter profit more than doubled to top Wall Street's expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 5-to-3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 6.56 billion shares, compared with 6.04 billion shares traded Tuesday.
Bond prices slipped as some investors moved from the safety of government debt to stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.12 percent from 4.10 percent Tuesday.
The dollar rose against most other major currencies, while gold prices posted steep losses.
Some strength in the dollar helped push oil lower. The drop helped a range of sectors such as airlines. Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 89 cents to $8.60, and Continental Airlines Inc. jumped $1.54 to $14.80.
Energy companies lost ground as oil fell. Exxon Mobil Corp. fell $1.87 to $80.99, and Chevron Corp. slid $2.98 to $82.65.
AT&T rose $1.24 to $33.06 after the company said quarterly profits rose amid a big spike in wireless subscribers that offset its shrinking land-line business.
Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker, said its second-quarter earnings more than doubled as restructuring charges declined and the weak dollar helped lift overseas revenue. The stock rose 72 cents to $19.07.
McDonald's credited strong overseas sales with driving the company's second-quarter profit. The stock fell 46 cents to $59.66.
Washington Mutual fell $1.17, or 20 percent, to $4.65 after the nation's largest thrift reported a $3 billion loss due to increases in its loss reserves to cover souring loans in its mortgage portfolio.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.37, or 0.33 percent, to 719.19.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.97 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.60 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.45 percent, and France's CAC-40 jumped 1.88 percent.
