Wednesday's Stock Market Open: US Equities Rise As Traders Shift Focus To Earnings, FOMC

U.S. stocks traded higher on Wednesday as investors focused upon strong corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve’s decision and statement on rates later Wednesday, while watching for developments in China’s deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 124.01 points to 28,846.86 while the S&P 500 rose 10.71 points to 3,286.95 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 29.26 points to 9,298.95.

Chinese officials said late on Tuesday that the death toll from the coronavirus has climbed to 132 with total cases in China now nearing 6,000.

Various airlines have either suspended or reduced flights to and from mainland China.

Apple (AAPL) posted first quarter fiscal 2020 revenue and earnings that blew past analysts’ expectations.

General Electric (GE) and McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) both delivered fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat analyst expectations.

AT&T Inc. (T) posted better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter but revenue fell short of expectations.

“We are seeing economic data points that support this continued recovery,” said Susan Schmidt, a fund manager at Aviva Investors. “The coronavirus might have tamped that down just a bit, but overall management teams are coming back and giving a pretty positive outlook and feeling confident about their businesses.”

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its meeting on Wednesday, but traders will look to comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

U.S. trade deficit in goods surged by 8.5% in December to $68.3 billion from $63 billion in November, the government said Wednesday.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday its pending home sales index fell unexpectedly by 4.9% to a reading of 103.2.

Markets in mainland China remained closed for the lunar new year holiday, but Hong Kong‘s Hang Seng index plunged 2.82% and Japan’s Nikkei-225 gained 0.71%.

In Europe markets finished higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 0.04%, France’s CAC-40 rose 0.49% and Germany’s DAX also climbed 0.16%.

Crude oil futures gained 0.06% at $53.51 per barrel and Brent crude rose 0.58% at $59.15. Gold futures rose 0.03%.

The euro edged down 0.18% at $1.1001 while the pound sterling fell 0.12% at $1.3011.