Wall Street rises as investors bet on earnings

Upbeat earnings results from a pair of Dow components helped drive stocks on Wall Street higher Tuesday, nudging the S&P 500 very close to its all-time high.

Johnson & Johnson and Travelers helped push the blue-chip index up nearly 200 points. The S&P rose for the fifth straight session. It and the Nasdaq gained more than seven-tenth percent.

But Procter & Gamble warned that higher commodity and freight costs would take a bigger bite out of earnings… a good example of why investors should pepper their optimism with caution – says Vespula Capital CEO Jeff Tomasulo.

“I need more data, and I think that's the key, especially coming out of like what we saw come out of Procter and Gamble today we saw some different results come out of J&J. We have Netflix reporting. I want to be again cautious with how some of these companies are reporting the numbers coming out."

J&J’s shares rose more than 2% after the drug maker raised its adjusted profit forecast for 2021.

Higher returns on its investments helped Travelers top analysts’ targets, lifting the insurer’s shares 1.7%.

And shares of digital currency exchange Coinbase Global got a lift from the successful debut by the first ever bitcoin ETF. ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF jumped nearly 5%.

After the bell, shares of Netflix rose. The video streaming giant said it expects to add 8.5 million paid subscribers in the fourth quarter, topping estimates. It’s banking on the success of the hit series “Squid Game” and content investments to fend off competition.