By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are rising after the U.K.’s Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned just weeks after taking office.
At 10:02 ET (14:02 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 189 points or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.6%.
Corporate earnings continue to roll in, amid expectations that the S&P 500 will wind up showing 3% earnings growth for the quarter. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported better than expected profit but missed slightly on sales estimates. Its stock was down 7.8% in early trading.
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) rose 4% after it beat expectations despite the strong dollar.
Bond yields were weighing on stocks. The 10-year Treasury yield briefly rose to 4.18%, where it hasn’t been since 2008. The Federal Reserve is aggressively raising interest rates as it works to combat inflation, and most analysts believe it is on its way to another 0.75 percentage point rate hike when it next meets in November.
The Fed's actions are cooling off certain corners of the economy, especially housing. Existing home sales were the slowest since 2012 not counting the start of the pandemic, falling 1.5% in September to an adjusted rate of 4.7 million annually. Buyers are sitting on the sidelines amid mortgage interest rates around 7%, which are twice what they were just months ago.
Unemployment claims for last week unexpectedly dropped to 214,000 compared with an expected 230,000 and 226,000 the prior week.
In the U.K., where the pound has had a tough time in comparison with the U.S. dollar, P.M. Liz Truss resigned after less than two months in power. The resignation ends a chaotic period that began with the ouster of Boris Johnson, who led the country to abandon its membership in the European Union.
Oil rose. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 3%, to $87.11 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude was up 2.5%, to $94.72 a barrel. Gold Futures rose 0.2%, to $1637.