Dow rises as earnings season heats up; Microsoft Q2 EPS Beats By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The Dow notched a third-straight day of gains Tuesday as investors weighed up a slew of quarterly results as the earnings season continued to gather pace.

The gained 0.3%, or 104 points, the was down 0.1%, and the ended 0.27% lower.

Industrials led the broader market higher following an 8% surge in PACCAR (NASDAQ:) after the truck manufacturing company reported quarterly results that on both the top and bottom lines.

Defense companies including Raytheon Technologies Corp (NYSE:) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:) also underpinned gains in the sector following the latter’s that topped estimates.

Elsewhere on the earnings front, material maker 3M Company (NYSE:), a major dow component, slumped more than 6% after quarterly earnings and the company flagging a slowdown demand announcing 2,500 layoffs.

Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:), meanwhile, closed more than 1% lower as its fourth-quarter earnings per share was offset by a gloomy outlook as CEO Harris Simmons said the bank was socking away more money to protect against a slowing economy.

Tech was roughly unchanged on the day as gains in Apple (NASDAQ:) were offset by a wobble in Alphabet (NASDAQ:) as the latter attracted further regulatory scrutiny.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the search-engine giant violated antitrust laws by abusing its monopoly in ad technology.

Chip stocks gave back some gains from a day earlier on struggles in Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) as Bernstein downgraded the chipmaker to market perform from outperform, citing weakness in the personal computer market and new parts markets.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:), which ended the day just below the flatline, surged after its quarterly topped Wall Street estimates driven by growth in its cloud business.

In meme-related news, Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:) continued to put the squeeze on short sellers, rallying more than 15% even as the retailer is widely expected to be on the brink of bankruptcy.