Wall Street Stocks Surge Amid Strong Corporate Profits

Stocks on Wall Street rose in morning trading Wednesday, adding to their records set the previous day. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 487 points or 0.9% as of 9:53 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. This upward trend is part of a broader surge in major indices this week, which has given August a strong start.

More than three-quarters of the companies within the S&P 500 have reported earnings so far, with Wall Street expecting profit growth of 50% by the end of reporting. Disney rose 3.2% after easily beating profit forecasts, driven in part by a $1 billion box office haul from 'Toy Story 5' and theme park revenue. Booking Holdings jumped 5.5% following strong travel demand in its latest quarter.

Despite some uncertainty about the direction of the US war with Iran and concerns over high inflation, corporate profits and growth expectations have been driving stocks higher. SpaceX fell 10.7% despite reporting a smaller loss than expected in its first quarterly report as a public company. However, this drop was offset by a boost to semiconductor giant Nvidia after SpaceX announced it would exclusively use the company's computer chips for artificial intelligence technology.

The price of Brent crude oil rose 0.1% to $79.41 a barrel, while Treasury yields held steady in the bond market. Markets in Asia also rose, with benchmarks jumping more than 3% in Tokyo and Seoul as shares in computer chipmakers and other AI-related companies advanced.