New York - US stocks on Wednesday posted solid gains following a big jump in US existing-home sales and a mixed bag of earnings reports from Boeing, McDonald's and others.
The Dow Jones Industrial advanced 88.68 points to 18 038.27.
The broad-based S&P rose 10.67 points to 2107.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 21.07 points at 5 035.17.
Total sales of used homes jumped 6.1% to an annual rate of 5.19 million units in March, the fastest pace in 18 months, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
Dow member Boeing fell 1.4% as analysts focused on rising costs for production of its 787 jets rather than a 38.9% jump in net income to $1.34bn.
McDonald's, another Dow component, tacked on 3.1% as it vowed to unveil a turnaround plan in two weeks following another round of dismal results. Net income in the first quarter plunged 32.6% to $812m.
Dow member Coca-Cola rose 1.3% despite first-quarter earnings falling 3.8% to $1.56bn due to the strong dollar. That translated into 48 cents per share, six cents above forecasts.
Of 103 companies in the S&P 500 to report so far, 78 have beaten analysts' estimates, 15 have missed and 10 have come in at expectations, said S&P Capital IQ.
Other companies reporting earnings included Amgen (+0.4%), Chipotle Mexican Grill (-7.4%), EMC (+3.1%), Yahoo (+1.2%) and Yum Brands (+4.0%).
Google rose 1.0% as it launched its own US mobile wireless service. The service, named Project Fi, will use Wi-Fi hotspots along with the US mobile networks of Sprint and T-Mobile.
Sprint rose 2.0%, while T-Mobile US gained 2.2%.
Perrigo, which sells over-the-counter pharmaceutical products such as Sudafed and Claritin, rose 4.5% on reports that Mylan is planning to raise its bid after Perrigo rejected an initial offer of $28.9bn. Mylan fell 2.3%.
Visa rose 4.1% and Mastercard advanced 3.9% on reports that China will open up its bank-card clearing to US firms.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.98% from 1.92% on Tuesday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.67% from 2.59%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.