Walmart and Cisco results, trade optimism lift Wall Street

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in a broad-based rally on Thursday, helped by robust earnings from Walmart and Cisco and easing trade worries after China and the United States said they would hold talks later this month.

Walmart shares surged 9.5 percent, the most on the S&P 500, after the retailer said U.S. comparable sales grew the most in a decade and posted strong e-commerce sales.

The S&P retailers index gained 0.63 percent. All of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with technology stocks up 0.79 percent.

Cisco rose 4.6 percent after posting quarterly results and first-quarter sales forecast that topped Wall Street expectations.

 

Symantec jumped 7.1 percent after hedge fund Starboard Value disclosed a stake in the cyber-security firm and nominated five directors to its board.

"When you have a solid earnings backdrop it makes it easier for investors to digest some of the bad news as it comes up," said Shawn Cruz, manager of trader strategy at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

"The news of China coming back to the negotiating table is providing relief and you are starting to see markets stabilize a little bit."

Industrials rose 1.02 percent on hopes that Beijing and Washington may resolve a conflict that has roiled financial markets since early March.

Boeing rose 3.6 percent, also gaining on a bullish outlook by brokerage firm UBS.

Also helping was a dip in the dollar as well as a rally in the lira after Turkey's finance minister said the country would emerge from the current volatility stronger.

That eased concerns about U.S. lenders' exposure to Turkey and sent the KBW bank index up 1.4 percent.

At 11:20 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 338.93 points, or 1.35 percent, at 25,501.34, the S&P 500 was up 25.16 points, or 0.89 percent, at 2,843.53 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 67.53 points, or 0.87 percent, at 7,841.65.

Second-quarter earnings have been stronger than expected, with 79.3 percent of the 463 S&P 500 that have reported so far beating analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Department store chains were largely sitting out the rally, stung by Macy's warning on margins on Wednesday and JC Penney's weak results and lowered forecast.

Penney, not on the S&P 500, slumped 22.6 percent. Nordstrom, due to report after the bell, was trading flat.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.36-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.13-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 58 new highs and 42 new lows.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)