Off the wire
• 382 civilians killed in violence, armed conflicts in Iraq in January: UN  • Safaricom rallies Kenya's bourse from losing streak  • Roundup: African economies urged to innovate to avoid global shocks  • Feature: Tseyang's new life  • Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Feb. 1  • Japan OKs retinal cell transplant using others' iPS cells  • Violence erupts during evacuation of Jewish outpost in West Bank  • U.S. to grant Jordan 100,000 tons of wheat  • Thai top-brass members visit army's armament repair factory  • DR Congo hands over 128 suspected rebels to Burundi  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. stocks open higher amid earnings, Fed meeting

Xinhua, February 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened higher Wednesday as investors digested Apple's earnings report while awaiting the Federal Reserve's decision on rate hikes.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2017 first quarter ending Dec. 31, 2016. The tech giant posted all-time record quarterly revenue of 78.4 billion U.S. dollars and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of 3.36 dollars.

The company's shares jumped over 5 percent in the early trading Wednesday following the release of its better-than-expected quarterly results.

The Fed was also in the spotlight, which is scheduled to release its latest policy decision after the conclusion of its two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon. Analysts widely hold that the Fed won't hike rates at this meeting, but it will still be watched closely for more clues on the timing of the next rate increase.

At its December meeting, the U.S. central bank raised the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, the first and only time in 2016, and indicated a faster rate hike pace in 2017.

On the economic front, U.S. private sector employment increased by 246,000 jobs from December 2016 to January 2017, well above the market consensus of 168,000, said the January ADP National Employment Report Wednesday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 80.41 points, or 0.40 percent, to 19,944.50. The S&P 500 added 8.45 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,287.32. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 38.47 points, or 0.69 percent, to 5,653.26.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks closed mixed as Wall Street digested a batch of generally negative quarterly results from notable companies. Endi