Dow rallies on strong earnings from 3M, Caterpillar

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Wall Street's Dow Jones index was set to record its biggest intraday percentage rise in more than a month on Tuesday, boosted by gains in industrial giants 3M and Caterpillar.

The maker of Post-It Notes jumped 7.56 percent and Caterpillar 4.85 percent after the two companies reported stellar quarterly results and gave upbeat forecasts.

Both stocks contributed about 160 points to the Dow's 195- point rise.

McDonald's, another Dow component to report results on Tuesday, also notched up gains.

"At these levels, only companies that have both top-line and bottom-line beats could make the market move higher," said Rick Meckler, president of hedge fund LibertyView Capital Management LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The S&P industrial sector was among the biggest S&P gainers in the day. The sector has gained about 15 percent this year, largely in line with the broader S&P 500 index, but lags technology and healthcare groups.

"It offers some hope to investors that this rally will broaden out, which it needs to do, to sustain at these levels," Heckler said.

Strong earnings and optimism about President Donald Trump's tax plans moving forward helped the Dow and S&P close at a record high on all five trading days last week.

At 12:32 p.m. ET (1632 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 189.78 points, or 0.82 percent, at 23,463.74.

The S&P 500 was up 4.99 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,569.97 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 17.41 points, or 0.26 percent, at 6,604.24.

Gains in both indexes were kept in check by declines in healthcare stocks.

Biogen slipped 4.61 percent after reporting disappointing U.S. sales of a potential blockbuster drug, Spinraza.

Centene dipped about 4 percent after saying that White House moves to cut off Obamacare subsidies would knock 7-12 cents per share off the health insurer's fourth-quarter earnings.

That along with a 1.5 percent drop in Johnson & Johnson and a 2.5 percent decline in AbbVie made the healthcare index the worst performer among the S&P sectors.

Financial stocks jumped 0.69 percent led by gains in Bank of America and JPMorgan, tracking higher Treasury yields.

General Motors rose 2.50 percent after the No.1 U.S. automaker reaffirmed its full-year earnings forecast and promised to slash stocks of unsold vehicles.

Whirlpool tumbled 10.11 percent after the home appliances maker reported profit and sales below estimates and lowered full-year earnings guidance.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,527 to 1,267. On the Nasdaq, 1,616 issues rose and 1,191 fell.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)