US stocks rise, led by media and phone companies
By STAN CHOE, Associated Press
Jul 27, 2017 10:52 AM CDT
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016, file photo, a pedestrian walks past the New York Stock Exchange, in lower Manhattan. Big gains for Facebook, Verizon Communications and other companies reporting healthier-than-expected results nudged U.S. stock indexes a bit further into record territory on Thursday,...   (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are on track to set more records Thursday as media companies and phone companies rise. Verizon Communications and Comcast are climbing after their second-quarter reports, while Facebook jumps as investors are pleased with its earnings, advertising revenue, and spending. Health care companies are lagging the rest of the market.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,481, as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, to extend its record run. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 61 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,772 and the Nasdaq composite rose 33 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,455. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks added 2 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,445.

ADD A LINE: Verizon Communications is on track for its biggest one-day gain in eight years after it reported more revenue than analysts expected. Many more new wireless phone customers signed up for Verizon service than Wall Street had forecast. Verizon jumped $3.15, or 7.1 percent, to $47.55.

A day ago, AT&T made its biggest move since 2008 after it reported stronger-than-expected earnings. It rose $1.34, or 3.5 percent, to $39.37 Thursday. Verizon is up 8 percent so far over the last two days and AT&T is up almost 9 percent.

LIKE IT: Facebook rose $8.45, or 5.2 percent, to $174.06 after it reported stronger-than-expected earnings. Its advertising revenue rose by nearly half from a year earlier, and Wall Street was pleased with the company's spending forecasts.

DON'T CHANGE THE CHANNEL: Media companies climbed after cable providers Comcast and Charter Communications gave their quarterly reports. Charter jumped $18.93, or 5.4 percent, to $367.70 and Comcast added 59 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $39.95. Elsewhere, Twenty-First Century Fox climbed $1.10, or 3.9 percent, to $29.28 while CBS rose $1.39, or 2.1 percent, to $68.01 and Viacom gained 95 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $40.70.

LUNG CANCER STUDY: Drugmaker AstraZeneca plunged after it said its lung cancer drug Imfinzi did not reach its goals in a clinical trial. The company said patients treated with Imfinzi did not have better progression-free survival, or the amount of times patients lived until either death or disease progression, compared to chemotherapy. U.S.-listed shares of AstraZeneca dropped $5.29, or 15.6 percent, to $28.65. Competitor Bristol-Myers Squibb tumbled $2.55, or 4.6 percent, to $53.43 as investors grew more pessimistic about studies of some of its drugs.

BLOCK IT: Twitter dropped $2.49, or 12.7 percent, to $17.12. It reported better-than-expected quarterly results, but it also said that its monthly average user base did not grow from the prior quarter.

FALLING: Johnson Controls tumbled $3.27, or 7.5 percent, to $40.05. It reported weaker-than-expected revenue for the latest quarter and trimmed the upper end of the range for its forecast for full-year earnings per share.

YIELDS: The 10-year yield rose to 2.32 percent from 2.28 percent late Wednesday. The two-year yield remained at 1.35 percent, and the 30-year yield climbed to 2.93 percent from 2.89 percent.

CURRENCIES: The dollar inched up to 111.61 Japanese yen from 111.30 yen late Wednesday. The euro dipped to $1.1665 from $1.1725, and the British pound fell to $1.3080 from $1.3100.

COMMODITIES: The price of oil slowed its rapid ascent from the last three days. Benchmark U.S. crude ticked up 9 cents to $48.84 a barrel in New York. It is close to its highest price since the start of June. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 19 cents to $51.29 per barrel in London.

Gold rose $8.80 to $1,258.20 an ounce, silver gained 18 cents to $16.64 an ounce and copper remained at $2.88 a pound.

AROUND THE WORLD: France's CAC 40 dipped 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX fell 0.9 percent and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.3 percent. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index up 0.1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.7 percent and the Kospi in South Korea added 0.4 percent.

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Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed from Tokyo. Business Writer Marley Jay contributed from New York.