Wall St edges up to intraday record, McDonald's falls

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 hit an intraday record high on Monday, led by bank and healthcare stocks and overcoming declines in consumer shares after McDonald's reported disappointing earnings.

Financials <.SPSY> rose for the 10th day in the past 12, with Bank of America leading the group. U.S.-listed shares of UBS rose 3 percent to $19.19 after the Swiss bank said its second-quarter profit beat forecasts despite a charge to settle a U.S. lawsuit.

The S&P 500 is up more than 18 percent so far this year, reflecting investors' attraction to equities. Recent data showed funds that hold U.S. stocks gained $16.96 billion in the week ended Wednesday, the most since June 2008.

 

"Investors do often chase rallies," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. "It could be feeding on itself a little bit."

McDonald's , the world's largest restaurant chain, reported weaker-than-expected net income and warned that full-year results would be "challenged" in the face of falling sales in Europe, its biggest market. Shares fell 2.5 percent to $97.78, weighing on the blue-chip Dow index. S&P consumer discretionary stocks fell 0.1 percent.

A rise in metal prices boosted materials shares, with Newmont Mining up 6.2 percent to $30.47 to lead gains in the S&P materials sector. Spot gold and 3-month copper touched one-month highs as the U.S. dollar weakened.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.69 points or 0.09 percent, to 15,557.43, the S&P 500 gained 4.06 points or 0.24 percent, to 1,696.15 and the Nasdaq Composite added 13.15 points or 0.37 percent, to 3,600.76.

The PHLX housing sector index fell 0.8 percent after an unexpected drop in U.S. home resales in June. The data also gave support to bets that the Federal Reserve will extend its rate of bond purchases to support the economy.

"Any type of softness in housing data puts expectations of a Fed taper on the back burner," said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co in Florham Park, New Jersey.

September is, however, still the most likely time for the Fed to announce that it will trim its monthly bond purchases, according to a Reuters poll.

Microsoft led technology stocks higher, up 1.2 percent to $31.77 after the software maker on Friday tumbled 11.4 percent following dismal results.

Of the 109 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings for the quarter, 64.2 percent have beaten analyst expectations, while less than half have topped revenue estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data.

About one-third of S&P 500 companies are expected to report earnings this week, including Apple and entertainment provider Netflix Inc .

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)