Global equity markets edged higher on Wednesday, lifted by a raft of solid corporate results and benign U.S. inflation data that may encourage the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates lower for longer.
Stock gains on Wall Street and Europe were largely driven by earnings, with U.S. tech names among the biggest gainers of the day. Both Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) and Broadcom (BRCM.O) beat revenue expectations late Tuesday, putting the benchmark S&P 500 on track for its biggest five-day rally since December 2011.
Yahoo rose 5.9 percent, Broadcom jumped 6.8 percent and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) rose 3.6 percent in London after saying it expects a vaccine against Ebola to be ready later this year.
Both Yahoo and Broadcom beat revenue expectations, while GlaxoSmithKline beat earnings expectations.
So far in Europe, 9 percent of STOXX 600 .STOXX companies have reported results, of which 65 percent have met or beaten profit forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters. In the United States, of the 135 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 68.9 percent beat expectations, higher than the rate over the previous four quarters, Thomson Reuters data show.
via Reuters
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