Stocks Closed Higher on Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday amid better-than-expected earnings results from companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 86.63 points, or 0.53% to 16,553.37. The S&P 500 was up 8.90 points, or 0.48%, to 1,878.33. The Nasdaq Composite added 29.14 points, or 0.72% to 4,103.54.

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) on Tuesday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue of $250 million (148 million pounds) , as its mobile ads drew more viewer responses. There were 255 million monthly active users, up 25 percent from a year ago.

EBay Inc. on Tuesday reported a first-quarter loss due to a tax charge of $3 billion, and the e-commerce leader recorded sales gains led by improvements in both the company’s core marketplace and PayPal payments businesses.For the quarter ended March 31 it lost $2.3 billion, or $1.82 a share, compared with a profit of $677 million, or 51 cents a share in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 14% to $4.26 billion from last-year’s first- quarter sales of $3.75 billion.

Investors rushed on Tuesday to get a piece of Apple’s new US$12bn seven-part bond deal, just the company’s second foray into the US bond market. Apple, which had initially been targeting US$8bn-US$10bn, will price the trade later on Tuesday.