Wall Street advanced as investors eyed the results of Alcoa due after the close of the market today to gauge whether the recent weakness in US economic numbers is going to be reflected in corporate profits.
Expectations are modest to say the least. S&P 500 companies' earnings probably rose 1.6 per cent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data, while analysts polled by Bloomberg News forecast that profits at S&P 500 companies fell 1.8 per cent in the latest quarter.
CEOs "have given lower and lower expectations, that anybody who doesn't meet expectations in this quarter is going to be punished severely," Joe Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade Holding, told Bloomberg. "While those that beat won't necessarily be rewarded, it'll keep their stocks from being annihilated."
Investors will also be watching out for the latest comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who is scheduled to speak in Atlanta later today at the 2013 Financial Markets Conference.
In afternoon trading in New York, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.23 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.22 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.03 per cent lower.