U.S. stocks advanced Wednesday, with the Dow rising more than 100 points, thanks to a strong batch of company news. But investors remain on edge as they consider the increasing likelihood that the U.S. will lead a military strike against Syria.
The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose between 0.7% and 0.9%.
Auto giants Ford and General Motors were big winners after delivering strong sales figures.
General Motors sales surged 15% in August while Ford’s climbed 12%. Chrysler also posted a 12% increase from a year earlier, and Toyota’s sales soared 23%.
Apple was also a top performer, as investors anticipated that the company will announce its newest iPhone next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, investors continued to monitor developments in Washington, as President Obama seeks congressional approval to carry out a military strike against Syria. He said U.S. intelligence showed that Syria used chemical weapons to kill more than 1,400 people.
Several key Democrats and Republicans have thrown their support behind Obama’s plan in recent days, though a number of hurdles must still be overcome before the U.S. can take military action.
The Federal Reserve will come into focus Wednesday afternoon when it releases its Beige Book.
The report summarizes economic conditions in the country and could influence the Fed’s decision on its stimulus policies. There is speculation that it could decide to start pulling back on its $85-billion-a-month bond-buying program in a meeting later this month.
Still, investors may remain cautious ahead of the August jobs report due Friday, as the health of the labor market is a key factor for the Fed. Analysts expect that the economy added 177,000 jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate held steady at 7.4%.
Another Nasdaq hiccup: Nasdaq suffered a brief outage shortly before noon Wednesday, which impacted trading in stock symbols PC through SPZ. The exchange once again had issues with the system that disseminates stock quotes, which was also at the root of the three-hour trading halt last month.
The exchange said the issue has been resolved.
What’s moving: Shares of LinkedIn fell more than 2% after the job search website announced plans to sell $1 billion worth of stock in a secondary offering. Of course even with the slide, shares of LinkedIn are up more than 100% this year.
LinkedIn’s big offering and the dip in the stock price were hot topics among traders on StockTwits.
howardlindzon: $LNKD…likely one or two huge acquisitions in their future with this secondary raise…who do you think?
EricSteiman: I missed the $LNKD run. Love the company, but its expensive, and I own $TSLA.
Shares of JCPenney rose sharply after two hedge funds — Hayman Capital and Glenview Capital– announced new stakes in the struggling retailer. But StockTwits traders were mostly skeptical.
scottsdalem: $JCP Retailers don’t have to take a position because the hedgies are doing so. You know what happened to Ackman.
hakihika: So someone else takes Ackman’s losing position and all of the sudden $JCP becomes a winning position? I say bounce don’t last.
On the earnings front, H&R Bloc shares fell after missing analyst expectations.
Shares of Dollar General rose after the retailer wowed Wall Street with its second-quarter results.
