Stocks Opened Higher on Earnings

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday, as strong earnings from Boeing Co. and PepsiCo Inc. helped push the S&P 500 to record levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately dipped 27.67 points, or 0.16%, to 17,085.87. The S&P 500 was up 1.55 points, or 0.08%, to 1,985.08. The Nasdaq Composite gained 10.76 points, or 0.24%, to 4,466.78.

Boeing (BA) beat second-quarter profit forecasts and raised its full-year outlook. For the quarter ending June 30, net profit rose to $1.7 billion, or $2.24 a share, from $1.1 billion, or $1.41 a share, a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share, which excludes non-recurring items, were $2.42. Revenue rose 1% to $22.05 billion,

PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) said it earned $1.978 billion, or $1.29 a share, in the second quarter, down from $2.010 billion, or $1.28 a share, in the same period a year ago. Adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.32. Revenue rose 0.5% to $16.894 billion.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said its second-quarter earnings jumped 17%, driven by higher passenger and operating revenue as traffic increased. Delta reported profit of $801 million, or 94 cents a share, up from $685 million, or 80 a share, a year earlier.
Comcast Corp’s quarterly profit beat estimates as its high-speed Internet business added the most number of customers in six years and profitability improved at NBC Universal.Comcast added 203,000 net high-speed Internet customers in the second quarter ended June 30.

California-based Wawona Packing Co. is voluntarily recalling fresh peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots sold across the U.S. on concerns about potential listeria contamination, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Growth in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy picked up pace in the second quarter, Spain’s central bank said Wednesday, as it raised its economic projections for this year and next. On an annual basis, the economy is likely to have grown 1.1% in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, it said.

Broadcom Corp. said about 2,500 employees will lose their jobs as it moves to wind down rather than sell an operation that had been making baseband chips for mobile devices.