Stocks opened with solid gains as investors grew optimistic about the earnings season following the stellar report from Alphabet (GOOGL). The Dow tacked on gains of roughly 1% before losing steam and trading in a fairly narrow range for the remainder of the session. The Nasdaq lost its momentum shortly after the lunch hour and spent most of the afternoon in negative ground as investors looked forward to the next round of earnings data after the close. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., Markit's flash manufacturing PMI edged up 0.1 tick to 55.5 in July. The firm's services PMI slipped another 0.3 points to 56.2 in the July flash reading. The FHFA home price index rose 0.2% to 263.3 in May. The Richmond Fed manufacturing index dipped to 20 in July after rising 5 points to 21 in June. In Asia, the Japanese manufacturing flash reading for July came in at 51.6, down from 53 in June. In Europe, the flash manufacturing PMI of 55.1 topped the expected reading of 54.7, while the services reading of 54.4 fell a bit short of the 55.1 consensus forecast. COMPANY NEWS: Class A shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) rose 4% after Google's parent company reported significantly better than expected quarterly earnings after adjusting for the $5B fine that the EU just levied... Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) gained 5% after the drugmaker reported earnings and announced plans to file a registration statement in the coming weeks with the SEC for a potential initial public offering of a minority ownership stake in Elanco Animal Health as a separate company... Whirlpool (WHR) dropped 14.5% and the stock was downgraded by Longbow analyst David MacGregor who called its quarterly report "disappointing across most dimensions of the business." MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Biogen (BIIB), which rose 4% reporting better than expected quarterly results and raising its guidance for fiscal 2018. Also higher after reporting quarterly results was Veracyte (VCYT), which gained 7%. Among the notable losers was FCB Financial (FCB), which dropped 12% after it agreed to be acquired by Synovus (SNV) for $2.9B in stock. Synovus was 9% lower after the deal news and its earnings report. Also lower was JetBlue (JBLU), which fell 10% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: The Dow rose 197.65, or 0.79%, to 25,241.94, the Nasdaq slid 1.10, or 0.01%, to 7,840.77, and the S&P 500 advanced 13.42, or 0.48%, to 2,820.40.
