NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks ticked up Tuesday as investors took in major earnings reports and girded for central bank interest rate decisions this week.
Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar released mixed fourth quarter results before the opening bell, highlighting that rising transport and material costs weighed on margins.
General Motors however saw higher fourth-quarter profits, helped by a strong showing in North America, while easing logistics problems brightened its 2023 outlook.
Wall Street ends higher, notches weekly gains
Caterpillar plunged 4.8 percent as General Motors surged over eight percent.
The US Federal Reserve also opens its two-day policy meeting Tuesday, and is widely expected to announce a smaller, 25 basis points rate hike at the end of the gathering as inflation shows signs of ebbing.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1 percent to 33,761.88.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 11,442.82, while the S&P 500 Index jumped 0.3 percent to 4,027.90.
Also on Tuesday morning, oil giant ExxonMobil posted record annual profits of $55.7 billion in 2022, reflecting higher commodity prices on recovering demand and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Pfizer posted record results for 2022 as well but warned the sale of its Covid-19 vaccine and oral treatment drug would slip this year.
“Market participants are continuing to exercise some caution in front of Wednesday’s (Fed) meeting and press conference,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
They are concerned Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will try to “squash the market’s belief that the Fed is going to cut rates before the end of the year,” he said.
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