The Dow Jones jumped 109.3 points to end at 13,676.2, the S&P 500 added 13.25 points to close at 1,519.6. The Nasdaq rallied again to finish 45.33 points higher at 2,799.26.
Apple continued to rally Tuesday after its strong sales and profit figures, shares in the maker of the iPhone advanced 6.8% to $186.16, having reached a record intra-day high of $188.60 earlier in the session. Rival Research in Motion also rallied following an announcement that it was teaming up with Alcatel-Lucent to distribute the BlackBerry in China. Shares closed 9.8% higher at $124.53 having also hit an intra-day record of $128.6 during the session.
Wal-Mart Stores ended 2.9% lower at $43.93 after saying it expects growth to slow for the next three years, and that it would be cutting capital expenditure for the year. Online retailer Amazon.com moved in the opposite direction ahead of quarterly results due after the close. Shares surged 10.4% to close at $100.82, the first time it has gone above $100 since December 1999. However, after the bell results showed only a slight improvement on forecasts and shares fell away around 5% to $96.
Treasury prices were higher, lowering the yield on the 10 year note to 4.40% from 4.41%.
US light crude oil for December delivery ended lower again, finishing at $85.27 a barrel.
COMEX gold for December delivery gained $3.10 to settle at $763.10 an ounce.
The Nikkei finished 92.2 points lower at 16,358.4 this morning. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc led declines by banks, while Toyota Motor Corp fell after the yen strengthened against the dollar. On the upside, steelmakers were higher after a research institute raised its outlook for materials producers.
The Hang Seng is 136.3 points higher at 29,513.1 this morning. China Mobile leads the advance on expectations companies will post strong results after Tsingtao Brewery Co reported higher earnings.
Mining giants added their weight to the London market yesterday, steering blue-chip stocks into positive territory. The FTSE 100 closed up 54.7 points at 6514, though a mixed opening on Wall Street saw top tier shares retreat from highs reached earlier in the session. Meanwhile a weaker-than-expected manufacturing survey from business lobby group CBI also dampened the uplift in investor sentiment.
The world's biggest mining group BHP Billiton rose 41p to 1805p after it reported record iron ore production in the three months to end-September. The news cheered the sector, with Antofagasta up 37.5p at 818p, Vedanta Resources ahead 96p at 2150p and Rio Tinto up 115p at 4165p.
House builders - a sector out of favour in recent times amid rising interest rates and fears of a slowing market - enjoyed a rebound as stocks benefited from more positive sentiment around house builders from the US. Persimmon lifted 39.5p to 988.5p and Barratt Developments gained 18.5p to 672p.
Banking stocks meanwhile were also back in favour, following an update from second-tier mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. The stock jumped 10% to 278.5p after it said that it remained comfortable with its current funding and liquidity levels.
Oil giant BP was more than 1% ahead at 612p, despite posting a 45% fall in profits in the third quarter. But analysts said the losses were not as steep as expected, adding that there may be light at the end of the tunnel for the company after recent production and refining problems. Moving in the opposite direction, softer oil prices saw Royal Dutch Shell dip 0.5p 659.5p.
Elsewhere, football kit maker Umbro surged more than 15%, or 25.25p to 190.25p, after it agreed to a £285m takeover by sportswear giant Nike.
The FTSE is currently 24.5 points lower, led by Kazakhmys following today's disappointing production summary. Smiths Group is also prominent on the losers chart after going ex-dividend. Home Retail tops the risers board after H1 results came in at the top end of market expectations.
Economics
EMU PMI surveys (Oct, flash) 09.00 bst
The flash manufacturing PMI is expected to ease for the fourth month in a row to 53. Financial markets certainly looked better in October, but the September New Orders Index pointed to more weakness ahead. The services PMI experienced a sharp fall in September, with financial markets being the obvious culprit. For October, a moderate rebound to 54.4 is expected.
US Existing home sales (Sept) 15.00bst
Pending home sales continued to drop in August, falling an additional 6.5 percent after plunging 10.7 percent annualised in July. With pending sales down 21 percent year on year existing home sales (-13 percent year on year through August) are likely to keep dropping. Existing home sales are seen falling to 5.25m, from 5.5m in August. Based on pending sales, the biggest declines could be seen in the South and Northeast.
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