U.S. stocks posted solid gains Tuesday after falling for five consecutive sessions as Wall Street eyed U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 189.68 points, or 1.09 percent, to 17,630.27. The S&P 500 jumped 25.61 points, or 1.24 percent, to 2,093.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 49.43 points, or 0.98 percent, to 5,089.21.
The Federal Open Market Committee kicked off its two-day meeting Tuesday, which is the last one before September. No press conference is scheduled at its conclusion Wednesday afternoon. Investors are not expecting any major decisions this week, but they will be looking for hints on the timing for a possible interest rate hike.
Investors have anticipated September or December is the most likely date for a hike this year. Quarterly earnings reports from big companies came out largely positive Tuesday. Shares of UPS jumped 5.07 percent to 99.94 dollars apiece after the company posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
The package delivery company announced the second quarter 2015 diluted earnings per share of 1.35 U.S. dollars, a 12-percent increase over adjusted results for the same period last year. Ford Motor Co. rose 1.92 percent to 14.83 dollars a share following the release of its best quarterly profit since 2000.
The automaker reported net income of 1.9 billion dollars for the second quarter of this year, up 574 million dollars, or 44 percent, from a year ago.
On the economic front, U.S. consumer confidence for July came in at 90.9, down from 99.8 in June and missing expectations, according to the New York-based research group Conference Board Tuesday.
"Confidence tumbled in July by enough to suggest weaker consumer spending. Weakness in the confidence index is one more reason to be cautious about the consumer spending outlook in the third quarter," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
Meanwhile, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that the 10-City Composite gained 4.68 percent year over year in May, while the 20-City Composite added 4.94 percent. All the ten sectors of the S&P 500 increased, with the energy leading the advancers, followed by the materials and the health sectors.
The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, plummeted 13.85 percent to end at 13.44 Tuesday. In other markets, U.S. oil price bounced as equity market of the country went up.
The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery moved up 59 cents to settle at 47.98 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery decreased 17 cents to close at 53.3 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Future Exchange.
The U.S. dollar bounced back from a two-week low against the Japanese yen as investors were awaiting the release of the Federal Reserve statement.
In late New York trading, the euro declined to 1.1048 dollars from 1.1097 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 123.61 Japanese yen, higher than 123.24 yen of the previous session. Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell as the U.S. dollar showed strength.
The most active gold contract for August delivery lost 0.2 dollar, or 0.02 percent, to settle at 1,096.20 dollars per ounce.
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