US open: Wall Street shoots for fifth straight month of gains

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street's main market gauges were trading slightly higher shortly after the open and were on track for a fifth consecutive monthly gain. At 1543 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was adding 0.18% to 35,524.76, alongside a 0.14% rise for the S&P 500 to 4,588.77.

Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets, said: "Earnings remain a key driver of markets as we move through the second quarter, with big hitters Apple and Amazon maintaining the tech theme this week.

"[...] With 51% of the S&P 500 having reported, this marks the halfway point for Q2 earnings season. It has been notable that those initial reports have seen the blended earnings growth rate for Q2 drop to -7.3% (vs 7% expected), despite seeing 80% of the companies outperform estimates."

Worth noting, in an interview with Yahoo, Chicago Fed chief, Austan Goolsbee, said of the central bank's next policy meeting: "There's nothing off the table, there's nothing specifically on the table."

Meanwhile, Market News International reported that its Chicago factory Business Barometer inched up by 1.3 points in July to reach 42.8.

That was a tad below the consensus for a reading of 43.3.

In corporate news, New Relic shares surged 13% after it agreed to be bought by Francisco Partners and TPG in a $6.5bn deal.

Palantir was spiking 10.4% helped by a recent upgrade out of Wedbush Morgan, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK noted.

Nikola was another top gainer after inking a deal to sell 13 of its electric trucks to J.B.Hunt.

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $36.24 0.00% 3M Co. (MMM) $111.15 0.00% Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $62.12 0.00% Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $235.01 0.00% JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $158.64 0.00% Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $30.09 0.00% Walmart Inc. (WMT) $159.11 0.00% International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $143.97 0.00% Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $33.94 0.00% Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $156.02 0.00%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $36.24 0.00% 3M Co. (MMM) $111.15 0.00% Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $62.12 0.00% Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $235.01 0.00% JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $158.64 0.00% Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $30.09 0.00% Walmart Inc. (WMT) $159.11 0.00% International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $143.97 0.00% Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $33.94 0.00% Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $156.02 0.00%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) $93.65 0.00% Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $153.94 0.00% Incyte Corp. (INCY) $63.85 0.00% Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $132.49 0.00% Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $236.11 0.00% Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $235.01 0.00% Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $381.25 0.00% Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $42.64 0.00% Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $76.25 0.00% Hasbro Inc (HAS) $64.42 0.00%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) $93.65 0.00% Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $153.94 0.00% Incyte Corp. (INCY) $63.85 0.00% Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $132.49 0.00% Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $236.11 0.00% Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $235.01 0.00% Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $381.25 0.00% Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $42.64 0.00% Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $76.25 0.00% Hasbro Inc (HAS) $64.42 0.00%