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NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index setting new closing records, as investors digested a batch of corporate earnings reports amid economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 112.86 points, or 0.57 percent, to 19,912.71. The S&P 500 added 14.87 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,280.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 48.01 points, or 0.86 percent, to 5,600.96.
Before Tuesday's opening bell, Johnson & Johnson posted adjusted earnings per share of 1.58 U.S. dollars for the fourth-quarter of 2016, an increase of 9.7 percent, beating market estimates, but its revenues fell short of forecasts. Shares of the health care giant fell 1.91 percent to 111.74 U.S. dollars apiece.
DuPont announced fourth-quarter GAAP earnings of 29 cents per share and operating earnings of 51 cents per share, topping Wall Street expectations. Its shares rose 0.71 percent to 48.09 dollars apiece Tuesday after the release.
Shares of Verizon dropped 4.37 percent to 50.12 dollars per share Tuesday after the tech giant posted worse-than-expected quarterly earnings.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the fourth quarter of 2016 are expected to rise 6.7 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 4.1 percent.
On the economic front, U.S. existing-home sales closed out 2016 as the best year in a decade, even as sales declined in December as the result of ongoing affordability tensions and historically low supply levels, according to the National Association of Realtors Tuesday.
Total existing-home sales decreased 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million in December from an upwardly revised 5.65 million in November.
"While existing home sales softened slightly in the final month of the year, all in all sales gradually moved up over the course of 2016 as housing demand continued to regain strength," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial.
Meanwhile, adjusted for seasonal influences, the Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing PMI for January increased to 55.1 from 54.3 in December.
