Wall Street gains as earnings beat; Turkish lira rebounds

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks advanced and the S&P 500 was on track for its best day in three weeks on Tuesday as a rebound in the Turkish lira eased contagion fears and a string of healthy earnings boosted investor optimism.

Gains were widespread as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average looked set to end their four-day losing streaks. Technology and financial stocks led all three major U.S. indexes higher.

The Turkish lira > recovered some ground after plunging to an all-time low on Monday as the country's central bank took steps to ease pressure on the currency.

 

Shares of U.S. banks reversed course on easing Turkey fears, with Citigroup Inc , JPMorgan Chase & Co , Wells Fargo & Co , Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc rising between 0.8 and 1.4 percent.

Along with the lira rebound investors focused on second-quarter results.

"We've had pretty good earnings," said John Brady, managing director at R.J. O'Brien & Associates in Chicago. "Home Depot is kind of the main earnings news today, the main driver."

"There appears to be a cessation of rhetoric between the White House and Turkey and the markets are performing in line with that," Brady added.

Home Depot Inc beat consensus estimates, reporting stronger-than-expected sales despite signs of a slowdown in the U.S. housing market. However shares of the home improvement chain - the first of the big-ticket brick-and-mortar retailers to post second-quarter earnings - were down 0.4 percent.

Shares of Home Depot's smaller rival Lowe's Companies Inc were up 1.1 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 127.73 points, or 0.51 percent, to 25,315.43, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 18.93 points, or 0.67 percent, to 2,840.86 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 46.05 points, or 0.59 percent, to 7,865.75.

All 11 of the major sectors in the S&P 500 were in positive territory.

As second-quarter earnings season draws closer to the finish line, 458 companies in the S&P 500 have posted results, 79 percent of which beat Street consensus.

Tesla Inc's shares dipped 1.1 percent after the electric automaker named a three-person committee to negotiate taking the company private, but said it had yet to see a firm offer from CEO Elon Musk.

Shares of Yum China Holdings Inc rose on news of a potential takeover by China Investment Corp and DEP Capital. The stock was last up 4.2 percent.

Coach handbag maker Tapestry Inc reported a 31 percent jump in quarterly revenue on strong demand for Kate Spade handbags, driven by publicity surrounding the designer's unexpected death. The stock jumped 13.1 percent.

Advance Auto Parts Inc reached a one-year high, rising 7.6 percent after beating quarterly profit estimates and announcing a new share buy-back programme.

In economic news, the July reading of its Business Optimism Index, the National Federation of Independent business posted its second-highest level in the survey's history.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.67-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.66-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 86 new highs and 71 new lows.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)