NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Wednesday as investors were sifting through a batch of corporate earnings reports.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 134.15 points, or 0.58 percent, to 23,131.59. The S&P 500 gained 1.76 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,561.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.87 points, or 0.01 percent, to 6,622.78.
Shares of U.S. tech giant IBM soared nearly 9 percent in mid-trading and was on track for its biggest one-day rise since January 2009, as the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
IBM posted adjusted earnings per share of 3.30 U.S. dollars on revenue of 19.15 billion U.S. dollars Tuesday after the closing bell, beating market consensus of 3.28 U.S. dollars per share and 18.6 billion U.S. dollars respectively.
According to consulting company Earnings Scout, this earnings season has gotten off to a good start, with more than 80 percent of companies that have reported beating on the bottom line, while 73 percent have topped sales estimates.
On the economic front, U.S. housing starts decreased 4.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.127 million units, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. That was the lowest level since September 2016 and followed August's upwardly revised pace of 1.183 million units. Enditem
