NEW YORK, July 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened mostly higher on Tuesday, as investors mainly digested better-than-expected corporate earnings.
Caterpillar reported second-quarter earnings and revenue on Tuesday that topped Wall Street's expectations, sending shares 4.40 percent higher in early trading.
The company announced quarterly sales and revenues of 11.3 billion U.S. dollars, and quarterly profit per share was 1.35 dollars.
After Monday's closing bell, Google-parent Alphabet reported strong financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.
This earnings season has been strong so far and pushed the major indices to record highs recently.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the second quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 8.8 percent year on year, while revenues are forecast to increase 4.6 percent.
Meanwhile, Wall Street also kept a close eye on a two-day Federal Reserve meeting that kicks off on Tuesday.
Traders have widely expected the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged this time. Market expectations for a rate hike were just 3.1 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 114.53 points, or 0.53 percent, to 21,627.70. The S&P 500 rose 6.76 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,476.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 9.65 points, or 0.15 percent, to 6,401.15. Enditem
