Better-than expected Apple earnings boost US stocks

Wall Street stocks edged up Wednesday helped by Apple’s 7.5 percent gain after its earnings bested expectations, and Boeing’s 2.5 percent jump despite its first loss in almost seven years.

Investors were waiting for a policy statement from the US Federal Reserve following a two-day meeting at 1800 GMT. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged, but will likely hint at rate hikes later in the year, said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

“The bigger surprise would be if the Fed walked a dovish line in the directive, creating an impression for the market that a rate hike will likely wait until 2017,” he said.

About 40 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,529.05, up 0.3 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 2,171.04, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7 percent to 5,143.49.

Apple reported a 27 percent drop in earnings to $7.8 billion on a sharp fall in iPhone sales. But that was better than analysts had expected, and the tech giant pointed to gains in App Store sales and the successful launch of its lower-priced iPhone SE.

Earnings were mixed overall, with Dow member Coca-Cola tumbling 2.9 percent on weaker international sales, and microblogging company Twitter diving 11.4 percent after reporting disappointing user growth.

Dow member Boeing rose 2.5 percent despite reporting a loss of $234 million in the second quarter. But Boeing reported better-than-expected revenues and confirmed its forecast for 2016 commercial plane deliveries.

Among other companies that reported, Buffalo Wild Wings surged 11.5 percent, freight rail company Norfolk Southern lost 1.9 percent, Panera Bread advanced 3.9 percent and United States Steel jumped 11.5 percent.