US stocks end with moderate gains

US stocks ended with good gains at Wall Street on Tuesday, 09 July 2013. Equities climbed on Tuesday, as Wall Street embraced an improving economy and higher interest rates. Alcoa started off earnings season, with the aluminum manufacturer the first Dow member to report earnings for the second quarter.

For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 75.65 points, or 0.5%, to 15,300.34. The Nasdaq Composite rose 19.43 points, or 0.6%, to 3,504.26. The S&P 500 index added 11.86 points, or 0.7%, to 1,652.32, with materials pacing sector gains.

Alcoa shed 0.1% after its slim earnings beat was overshadowed by a 1.9% year-over-year decline in revenue. IBM pressured the Dow after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to 'Neutral' from 'Buy.'

Growth-oriented groups paced today's advance even after the International Monetary Fund cut its 2013 global growth outlook to 3.1% from 3.3%.

Shares of FedEx Corp. rallied 4.4% on speculation that hedge fund Pershing Square was considering a position in the global shipping company. D.R. Horton jumped 7.6%, with shares of the home builder possibly benefiting from a report released Tuesday showing the number of foreclosures down sharply from a year ago.

Commodities were boosted on Tuesday on news that China's inflation rate heated up a bit in June. China's June consumer price index was up 2.7% on an annualized basis, compared to a 2.1% rate in May and above the consensus forecast for a 2.5% rise. Gold and other hard assets have traditionally been used as a hedge against inflationary price pressures. The China inflation news coincides with the recent surprisingly sharp rise in U.S. bond yields and home mortgage rates.

The civil unrest in Egypt is still a front-burner issue for the world market place. There were no major developments on Tuesday, but the situation still has traders uneasy. The crisis in Egypt could quickly escalate and even spread to other countries in the Middle East. Gold has seen some safe-haven investor demand due to the recent political upset and violence in Egypt.

The market place is awaiting the Wednesday release of China's latest trade report and the minutes of the last U.S. Federal Reserve FOMC meeting. These two data points are the most important economic readings of the week.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, rose by 0.7% on Tuesday. It puts the Dollar Index on pace for its best close in three years. Much of today's greenback strength has come at the expense of the euro and the Swiss franc.

For every stock falling, roughly three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where nearly 692 million shares traded. Composite volume surpassed 3.1 billion.

Indian ADRs ended mostly higher on Tuesday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 1.3% and Wipro was down 0.01%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 0.2% and ICICI Bank was up 1.1%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 1.5%, and Sterlite was up 3%.

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00 ET, May wholesale inventories will cross the wires at 10:00 ET, and the Federal Open Market Committee will release the minutes from its June 19 policy meeting at 14:00 ET.

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