Leading Wall St shares were mixed in early trading with the Dow adding to the significant gains made in yesterday's session while the Nasdaq fell to profit takers. By mid-morning the Dow Jones was up 130.07 points to 10,275.33 and the Nasdaq fell by 1.18 points to 1,955. Yesterday's rally on Wall Street's main indices saw shares rise to their highest levels in more than a year, as the expiration of options and futures contracts and upbeat economic reports prompted investors to buy bluechips.
Today's surge was prompted by upbeat corporate earnings reports from metals and bluechip tech firms. Tektronix, the maker of testing and electronics equipment, saw its shares surge nearly 12pc after it said that quarterly profit and revenue rose from a year earlier, helped by one-time gains and strength in the mobile and government sectors. Alcoa, the world's biggest aluminium producer, was also among the gainers on the Dow so far, rising 2.1pc after Morgan Stanley said it raised its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight" citing rising prices and demand for metals and minerals. //www.fxcentre.com