US open: Stocks bounce back despite mixed results

Shares on Wall Street are finding a decent bid at the end of the week despite a spate of mixed company results.

As of 16:49 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials was rising 0.58% to 20,782.61, alongside gains of 0.73% for the S&P 500 to 2,383.05 and gains of 0.63% in the Nasdaq Composite taking it to 6,093.46.

Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were up by 2.02% to $50.37 a barrel on the ICE.

To take note of, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of St.Louis said rate-setters' own forecasts for two more interest rate hikes in 2017 might be overly aggressive.

Judging by the reaction from financial markets to the Fed's last hike, which was the opposite of what he had expected, James Bullard said:"This may suggest that the FOMC’s contemplated policy rate path is overly aggressive relative to actual incoming data on U.S. macroeconomic performance."

Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was edging higher by one basis point to 2.25%.

No first-tier US economic data was scheduled for release on Friday, although traders were waiting on Baker Hughes's weekly tally of US oil rigs, at 18:00 BST.

Shares of Deere & Co. rocketed after the agricultural equipment manufacturer raised its sales and profit forecasts for the year.

Power company Dynegy was another standout gainer after the Wall Street Journal said it had received a takeover approach from rival Vistra Energy.

Investors were also cheered by stronger than expected profits and guidance out of semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials.

Campbell Soup on the other hand was on the backfoot after its latest quarterly figures fell short of analysts' estimates.

Stock in Foot Locker plummeted after the sporting goods retailer posted a 0.4% improvement in its first quarter like-for-like sales (consensus: 1.4%).

Dow Jones - Risers

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $102.39 2.17%
General Electric Co. (GE) $27.97 1.80%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $78.85 1.69%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $78.12 1.40%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $84.98 1.21%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $120.69 1.11%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $148.37 0.93%
American Express Co. (AXP) $76.99 0.80%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $153.66 0.73%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $52.06 0.73%