Stocks Ended Higher on Strong Data

U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, on a combination of robust economic data, after the first presidential debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican contender Donald Trump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 133.47 points, or 0.74%, to 18,228.30. The S&P 500 rose 13.83 points, or 0.64%, to 2,159.93. The Nasdaq Composite gained 48.22 points, or 0.92%, to 5,305.71.

U.S. consumer confidence in September rose to the highest level in nine years, a hopeful sign that economic growth will accelerate in coming months. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 104.1, up from 101.8 in August.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities continued to gain at a solid pace in July, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday. 20-city property values index climbed 5 percent from July 2015 (forecast was for 5.1 percent), after a 5.1 percent year-over-year rise in June.

Nike Inc. (NKE) topped Wall Street estimates for the quarter but reported a single-digit rise in future orders and a double-digit rise in inventories. The company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 73 cents a share on revenue of $9.06 billion. Futures orders for September 2016 through January 2017 rose 5% to $12.3 billion, while inventories as of Aug. 31 rose 11% to $4.9 billion from the year-ago period.

Harmonic Inc. (HLIT) reached a deal with Comcast Corp. cmsca that would give Comcast the right to buy common shares of Harmonic if the video services company meets certain sales and deployment milestones during a certain time frame, the San Jose-based company said Tuesday.