NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks opened higher Tuesday as the market weighed improving corporate earnings against rising uncertainty over the US presidential election.
With almost 60 percent of the S&P 500 having reported, companies are on track for a earnings gain of 1.6 percent compared with last year, the first year-over-year gain since early 2015, according to Fact set.
Clinton still leads by two points in the Real Clear Politics average of polls, but an ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll released Tuesday showed Clinton had fallen by seven points to put Trump just one point ahead.
Markets are nervous over the possibility of a Trump win because of the Republican’s penchant for unpredictability.
Uncertainty about the race is why “the market remains held in check with a slight downward bias,” Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said.
Five minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,159.96, up 0.1 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 2,129.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 percent to 5,200.14.
