hr: Money

Photo Credit: david.nikonvscanon

For the first time this week, US stocks made tremendous gains after Boeing Co. and Philip Morris International Inc. have astonishingly proved speculations that overseas growth will offset domestic economic slowdown.

Boeing, the world’s second-biggest maker of jetliners, appears at the top of the list of best-performers, rising beyond expectations in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Philip Morris, on the other hand surpassed profit estimates by 15 percent.

Survey reveals that out of 263 companies that reported first-quarter results in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, 73 percent either matched or have exceeded the average estimate of analysts, according to Bloomberg.

“The market was too pessimistic … you still see companies executing, doing well, coming in better than expectations,” said Mark Freeman, asset manager at Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, which manages $8 billion.

Philip Morris reported a 29 percent jump in profit as new varieties of Marlboro cigarettes and acquisitions spurred sales in Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico. The world’s largest tobacco company outside of China also said profit this year will exceed its forecasts. The shares advanced 2.7 percent to $51.30.

Technology stocks were up more than 1 percent after EMC Corp, the world’s largest maker of storage computers, said revenue increased 14 percent in North America despite fears of a US recession.

Insurer Safeco shares shot up after it agreed to be bought out by Liberty Mutual Group for 6.2 billion dollars, but worse-than-expected results from Ambac Financial Corp kept alive fears of more credit- crisis related writedowns from banks.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.99 points, or 0.34 percent, to 12,763.22. The broader Standard & Poor 500 Index was up 3.99 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,379.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 28.27 points, or 1.19 percent, to 2,405.21.

The dollar rose against the euro to 62.96 euro cents from 62.55 euro cents on Tuesday, and to 103.44 Japanese yen from 103.01 yen.

Gold fell 16.20 dollars to 909.00 dollars per fine ounce.