U.S. stocks regained some of Monday’s losses today as positive earnings helped gave investors greater confidence to buy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 65.16 points or 0.53 percent to 12266.75. The Standard & Poor’s 500 tacked on 7.48 points, or 0.57 percent to 1312.62 while the Nasdaq Composite added 9.59 points, or 0.35 percent to 2744.97.
Yesterday, a credit downgrade to a negative outlook on the U.S. government’s present AAA score caused shares to plummet. Today, the sentiment appeared adjusted as shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), up 3.7 percent. Energy was also higher with oil over $108 a barrel pushing Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) up close to a full percentage point.
Banks pulled the market lower; however. Earnings exceeded expectations at big banks like Goldman Sachs despite being significantly lower than the year ago quarter, but questions surrounding strength of the gains and the bank’s ability to maintain them led investors to other areas of the market.
Financial stocks were mixed as a number of big banks reported earnings. Goldman Sachs Group‘s (NYSE: GS) first-quarter earnings and revenue easily topped forecasts, but concerns arose about the sustainability of its gains. Goldman fell 1.3% as investors interpreted discussions of regulatory uncertainty to mean fewer money making options on the horizon. Earnings for a number of other banks fell alongside Goldman including Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS)which slid 5.3 percent on unimpressive first-quarter profits. Bank of New York Mellon was down 2.9 percent.
Other banks had better days including J.P Morgan (NYSE: JPM), closing up 1.6 percent and Citigroup (NYSE: C), which was 2.5 percent higher for the day.
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