Wall St ticks higher as recovery in growth stocks offsets mixed earnings

Delta Air Lines jumps on profit forecast; BlackRock up after profit beats estimates, JPMorgan down after profit falls 42%

US shares rose on Wednesday as a recovery in growth stocks and strong results from Delta Air Lines offset declines in JPMorgan after the bank reported a slump in quarterly profit.

Megacaps Apple Inc and Meta Platforms Inc rose 0.6% each, while Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc rose 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively, after chipmakers' shares got battered this week.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped nearly 21.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 14% so far this year as market-leading growth and technology stocks came under pressure on signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it will hike rates aggressively to control soaring inflation.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors advanced in early trading, with industrial stocks leading gains helped by a surge in airline shares.

Delta Air Lines Inc jumped 5.8% after it forecast a return to profit in the current quarter as airline travel demand reaches record highs.

Other airlines such as American Airlines Group Inc, United Airlines Holdings Inc and Southwest Airlines Co gained between 7.2% and 9.9%.

Meanwhile, capping market gains, JPMorgan Chase & Co fell 2.8% after reporting a 42% drop in quarterly profit as the Ukraine crisis and decades-high inflation stalled dealmaking activity at the bank.

"When you look at results versus expectations and a stock that was doing very well in the earlier part of the year and now down year-to-date, I would say a lot of this news is baked in," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

"Coming into this earnings report, the market has done a pretty appropriate job of looking at where some of the shortfalls might be."

Other big banks Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co , Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp, which report later this week and next, fell between 0.2% and 1.1%.

Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to have increased by 6.4% in the first quarter, compared to the 32.1% jump in the fourth-quarter of 2021, according to IBES data from Refinitiv, as an aggressive Fed, soaring inflation and geopolitical uncertainty due to the Ukraine conflict muddies the outlook for the earnings season.

At 10:16 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 55.09 points, or 0.16%, at 34,275.45, the S&P 500 was up 9.75 points, or 0.22%, at 4,407.20, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 119.02 points, or 0.89%, at 13,490.60.

Data on Wednesday showed producer prices increased more than expected in March amid a surge in demand for services, suggesting inflation could remain high for a while.

BlackRock Inc inched up after posting a better-than-expected profit as the world's largest asset manager benefited from investors pouring money into its various index-traded and active funds.
 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.29-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 16 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 32 new highs and 113 new lows.