Stocks - Wall Street Inch Higher as Mixed Earnings Offsets Trade Hopes

Investing.com – Wall Street inched higher on Tuesday as mixed earnings releases offset rising hopes of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing, fueled by newspaper reports suggesting the U.S. is ready to compromise on some of China's core demands.

The Dow was up 52 points or 0.2% by 9:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT), while the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite also rose 0.1%.

President Xi Jinping stressed on Tuesday China’s commitment to global trade, and that the country would “open its doors only wider” to the world but did not make any mention of the potential trade deal with the U.S.

China is pushing the U.S. to remove some of the tariffs imposed in September as part of the “Phase One” trade deal that the two nations are hoping to sign before the end of the year, according to various reports. It's unclear how much it would give up in return.

Upbeat earnings numbers and positive economic data last week helped stocks rise to record highs on Monday. Over three-quarters of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far have beaten profit expectations, Refinitiv data showed (albeit expectations had been massaged lower in advance).

"The lion's share of the numbers have come in already and we have had enough reports to suggest that this was a solid earnings season," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) in Austin, Texas.

Software company Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) gained 4.9% after beating forecasts, while Tapestry (NYSE:TPR) inched up 0.1% after topping estimates due to increased demand for its handbags.

Uber (NYSE:UBER) tumbled 7.6% after the ride-sharing company failed to narrow its underlying losses significantly in the last quarter, while Shake Shack (NYSE:SHAK) fell 16.7% after it reported weak same-store sales and cut its forecast for the year. Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) was down 5.5% as earnings came in weaker than expected due to slowing traffic and sales.

In commodities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.2% to 97.585 and gold futures slumped 1.1% to $1,495.25 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures surged 1% to $57.13 a barrel.

-Reuters contributed to this report

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