Stock market news: July 23, 2019 – Yahoo Finance

U.S. stocks were mostly higher on the heels of stronger-than-expected earnings results from several major companies Tuesday morning and an announced bipartisan agreement over the debt ceiling. Overseas, European equity markets climbed after Boris Johnson clinched the vote to become Britain’s new prime minister.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.12%, or 3.62 points, as of 10:22 a.m. ET. The Dow (^DJI) advanced 0.2%, or 55.08 points, as shares of Coca-Cola (KO) and United Technologies (UTX) climbed after the companies topped Wall Street’s quarterly earnings expectations. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) slipped 0.06%, or 4.52 points.

Late Monday, President Donald Trump announced that he and congressional leaders had reached a bipartisan deal to raise the government borrowing limit and boost federal spending, in a move that helped the government avoid potentially disastrous defaults on payments in the next few months.

The plan, which outlines more than $2.7 trillion in spending over two years and suspends the debt ceiling through July 2021, was the product of weeks of negotiations between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The House of Representatives must approve the agreement this week ahead of Congress’s six-week recess, while the Senate can vote on the agreement as late as next week.

Britain’s new prime minister

Overseas, European stocks advanced and the bruised British pound fluctuated after frontrunner Johnson won the election to become the U.K.’s prime minister.

Johnson, previously U.K. foreign secretary and mayor of London, defeated foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt to become the new leader of the governing Conservative Party, setting him up to succeed Theresa May as prime minister on Wednesday.

Johnson inherits a three-year long struggle to deliver an exit plan for Britain from the EU, and a deadlocked Parliament that has repeatedly struck down May’s Brexit roadmaps. Johnson, a vocal hardline Brexit proponent, has promised to pluck Britain from the EU by Oct. 31, raising the prospects of a no-deal exit that could roil businesses in the region.

The British pound initially rose against the U.S. dollar (GBPUSD=X) following the announcement of Johnson’s victory, before paring gains and dipping to below $1.25. London’s FTSE 100 index (^FTSE) rose 0.7%.

Meanwhile, global stocks were not meaningfully changed after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecast to 3.2% in 2019 and 3.5% in 2020, with both figures revised down 0.1 percentage points from the IMF’s April report. The institution cited ongoing risks stemming from U.S.-China trade tensions and Brexit uncertainties as cause for the revision, which was published Tuesday morning ET.

Earnings update

Second-quarter earnings season continues to chug along, with some positive reports Tuesday morning adding to investors optimism that a year-over-year decline in aggregate earnings per share among S&P 500 components may be avoided.

Coca-Cola (KO) posted quarterly comparable earnings per share (EPS) that topped consensus expectations, delivering 63 cents a share versus 61 cents a share expected. In the company’s North American market, higher drink prices for sugary beverages, along with stronger sales for healthier beverages, helped boost results. Additionally, a 7% rise in unit case volume in Asia helped drive that measure of consumer demand up 3% globally during the quarter.

Elsewhere, aerospace and defense companies United Technologies (UTX) and Lockheed Martin (LMT) each beat expectations in quarterly results and raised their full-year forecasts, underscoring ongoing strength in the aerospace market.

United Technologies, which raised its forecasts several times over the past year and recently announced a merger with Raytheon, said it expects adjusted profit to come in between $7.90 and $8.05 a share for the year, raising the low end of its guidance by 10 cents. Lockheed Martin said it expects full-year EPS will come in between $20.85 to $21.15 a share, up from the $20.05 to $20.35 range it guided toward previously, amid a bigger backlog for products including its multi-billion dollar F-35 fighter jet.