Dow trades above 23,000-mark as IBM's stock jumps

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average rose again above the 23,000 level on Wednesday, driven by a jump in IBM after the computing giant hinted at a return to revenue growth.

Shares of IBM , which beat expectations on revenue, were on course to record their biggest percentage gain in more than eight years and accounted for about 100 points of the 156 point-gain in the blue-chip index.

The Dow had briefly surpassed the all-time peak on Tuesday but closed just shy of it. The latest 1,000-point increase was covered in roughly half the time it took the index to move from 21,000 to 22,000.

 

"Today the catalyst is clearly IBM ... which appears to have turned the corner. It gave the Dow the boost to stay over 23,000," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

Solid earnings, stronger economic growth and hopes that President Donald Trump may be able to make progress on tax cuts have helped the market rally this year.

The financial index <.SPSY> jumped 0.5 percent, led by bank stocks that were recovering from recent post-earnings losses. A rise in Treasury yields and bullish calls by brokerages helped to support the bank shares.

Bank shares had run up ahead of results, which resulted in some selling following the earnings news, the Krosby said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 154.69 points, or 0.67 percent, to 23,152.13, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 3.09 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,562.45 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 7.74 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,631.40.

The S&P and Nasdaq also hit record intraday highs on Wednesday but traded in narrow ranges.

Abbott rose 1.3 percent after the company's profit beat estimates on strong sales in its medical devices business.

Anthem gained 2.6 percent after the health insurer said it signed an agreement with CVS Health to support the company's new pharmacy benefit management business.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.63-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)