By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday,
with the S&P 500 continuing its longest stretch of gains since
mid-July, after positive economic data from China and indications
that U.S. military action against Syria might be averted.
"The markets are right now breathing a sigh of relief that we're
moving closer to a diplomatic solution as opposed to a military
solution in Syria," said Darrell Cronk, regional chief investment
officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. "Any military solution would
cause some angst" by creating uncertainty as to its scale and
duration, Cronk said.
"Overnight we had really strong economic data out of China, both
their industrial production numbers and their retail-sales numbers
were up double digits over year-ago numbers. That has Asian markets
up nicely," Cronk added of reports from Beijing's National Bureau
of Statistics.
The data had China's industrial output rising 10.4% in August
from a year ago and retail sales gaining 13.4%. Wall Street
finished higher on Monday after China reported exports growth that
surpassed expectations.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) added 64.78
points, or 0.4%, to 15,127.93.
The makeup of the blue-chip index will change dramatically as of
the open on Sept. 23, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) replacing
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Visa Inc. (V) replacing
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), and Nike Inc. (NKE) bumping Alcoa Inc.
(AA), S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Tuesday.
Shares of Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa fell on the news, with the
former off 1.8% and the latter down 1%, while Bank of America was
up 0.4%.
Goldman Sachs rose 3.2%, Visa gained 1.9% and Nike advanced
1.8%.
"The Dow is going to look and act very differently going
forward. Leaving aside Nike and Hewlett-Packard, you've replaced
two stocks that essentially don't matter in Alcoa and Bank of
America with two that do," said Dan Greenhaus, chief market
strategist at BTIG LLC, in emailed commentary.
The S&P 500 index (SPX) rose 7.72 points, or 0.5%, to
1,679.40.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) climbed 15.06 points, or 0.4%, to
3,721.24.
For every share falling, roughly two rose on the New York Stock
Exchange, where 77 million shares traded as of 9:40 a.m.
Eastern.
Composite volume neared 284 million.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell 0.8% as the consumer-technology company
readied to reveal its new iPhone models. Follow streaming coverage
of Apple.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires