US stocks gain for 4th straight day before earnings deluge

Wall Street stocks rose for the fourth straight session on Tuesday in anticipation of what is expected to be a strong corporate earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% to end the day at 24 919.66.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4% to finish at 2 793.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up less than 0.1% to 7  759.20.

Earnings for the second quarter are projected to rise 20% or more compared with the year-ago period, thanks to a strong US economy and the boon from last year's massive corporate tax cuts.

Those forecasts have enabled investors to look past worries over trade conflicts between the US and China and other partners.

Beyond that, some analysts are skeptical the trade conflict will mushroom into a broader fight feared by the market.

CFRA Research analyst Lindsey Bell said some hard-hit equities such as industrials could gain once trade war fears recede.

"Once we get past these talks, which we view as a negotiating tactic by the Trump administration, this sector will jump," she said on a conference call previewing earnings.

Among individual companies, PepsiCo surged 4.8% after reporting better-than-expected earnings per share.

Boeing gained 1.5% after announcing it delivered 194 commercial planes in the second quarter, up from 183 in the year-ago period.

Tesla Motors advanced 1.2% after unveiling plans to build a new factory in Shanghai targeting annual production capacity of 500 000 cars a year.

Earnings season gets going in earnest on Friday with reports from JPMorgan Chase and two other giant US banks.