By Joe Wallace and Michael Wursthorn 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose Wednesday, on pace for a fourth straight day of gains, after investors got several doses of good news.

Signs of progress toward a coronavirus vaccine by Moderna propelled most corners of the stock market higher. Goldman Sachs Group added to the advance after reporting one of its best quarters by revenue ever. Apple won a key court case in Europe, and economic figures on industrial production surprised to the upside.

That all pushed the blue-chip index up 134 points, or 0.5%, to 26779 in recent trading, although the Dow is off from its session high. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, leaving it off 0.4% from where it started earlier this year. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2% following a series of swings in technology stocks.

Most of the gains followed the release of a new study suggesting Moderna had reached a breakthrough with its coronavirus vaccine, setting the stage for a larger trial at the end of this month. Cruise-ship operators, airliners and other stocks sensitive to the coronavirus crisis mostly led the stock market higher. Shares of Moderna rose 9.1%.

"Every time we get some sort of positive news on the vaccine front, then understandably markets benefit from that," said Paul Jackson, head of asset-allocation research at Invesco. "The way it's looking at the moment, it really looks as though a vaccine is the only hope. This thing is not going away."

Promising developments on various coronavirus vaccines in development have acted as crucial catalysts for some of the stock market's biggest days of gains, sometimes even helping to pull indexes out of a rut.

Wednesday's development appeared to keep the trend intact after several days of sloppy trading, said Thomas Lee, managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, in a note to clients. The vaccine, along with the passing of the U.S.'s July 15 tax day, could mark a turning point for markets.

"There are piles of cash seen in [hedge funds], macro funds, mutual funds and individual investors," Mr. Lee said. "Health-care data continues to support some sort of cure, the focus on "re-closings" ultimately fades. And markets continue to be "risk on."

Some better-than-expected earnings results also boosted stock prices on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs shocked Wall Street by reporting a $2.4 billion profit last quarter, more than double the expectation of forecasters and bucking the lackluster results revealed by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and other banks.

Shares of Goldman rose nearly 1% after paring an earlier gain.

U.S. Bancorp also topped expectations for the last quarter, sending shares up 3.2%.

Apple had contributed to the session's earlier gains after the tech giant won a major legal battle with the European Union. The bloc's second-highest court sided with the U.S. company over a EUR13 billion ($14.8 billion) tax bill that EU antitrust officials had said the U.S. company owed to Ireland. Shares rose 0.2% in recent trading, down from earlier in the session.

Meanwhile, U.S. industrial production continued to recover in June, the Federal Reserve said. Production rose 5.4%, accelerating from the 1.4% growth recorded in May.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to 0.623%, from 0.614% Tuesday, in another sign of investors' optimism.

Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 1.8%, with gains for airline and cruise-line stocks. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed largely flat after President Trump authorized sanctions targeting Chinese officials who crack down on the rights of Hong Kong

Write to Joe Wallace at Joe.Wallace@wsj.com and Michael Wursthorn at Michael.Wursthorn@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 15, 2020 15:32 ET (19:32 GMT)

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