Stocks set to extend 6-day winning streak after Intel reports strong earnings, upbeat forecast

Corporate profits again lift stock futures

NEW YORK — Investors are ready to send the market higher for a sixth consecutive session after a fresh round of upbeat earnings provided hope that an economic rebound will pick up. Stock futures rose Wednesday.

Chipmaker Intel Corp. reported strong earnings and a positive outlook for growth after the market closed Tuesday, a day after Alcoa Inc. and CSX Corp. did the same.

A disappointing report on June retail sales pushed stock futures off their highs ahead of Wednesday’s market opening, but was not enough to fully erase the morning’s gains.

Intel reported its biggest quarterly profit in a decade as large corporations started buying new computers for employees. Companies have been stingy in upgrading technology during the downturn, so a return of spending could be a sign corporations are ready to start expanding their businesses again and hire new workers.

Intel’s profit and outlook, which is higher than analysts’ forecasts, are considered good signs for the economy because the chipmaker manufactures 80 percent of the processors that run PCs and has a large global reach.

The Commerce Department said retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June. That’s worse than the 0.2 percent drop that economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast. However, excluding autos, spending was down just 0.1 percent, which was inline with expectations.

Retail sales remain a vital component to the economy because shoppers account for the bulk of the nation’s economic activity. High unemployment has kept customers out of stores and could hold retailers earnings in check.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 24, or 0.2 percent, to 10,312. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 1.70, or 0.2 percent, to 1,091.40, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 11.25, or 0.6 percent, to 1,853.75.

Intel shares rose $1.40, or 6.7 percent, to $22.41 in pre-opening trading.

The Dow rose 147 points Tuesday after aluminum producer Alcoa and railroad company CSX both reported better-than-expected profit. The pair also provided optimistic outlooks for the rest of the year.

The Dow is up nearly 7 percent during its current six-day winning streak, its best stretch since last July. The recent run-up has erased nearly all the Dow’s losses for the year.

Stocks had been mired in a slump in May and June as economic reports piled up showing the economy was not growing as fast as hoped. Rising debt problems in some European countries also added to the market turbulence.

However, early earnings reports have demonstrated that slow economic growth is not dampening corporate profits. Investors’ concerns about a further slowdown later in the year have not been shared by companies so far, which have largely provided upbeat outlooks for future quarters. That reassurance has helped to combat the string of disappointing economic reports that came out in recent months.

Meanwhile, bond prices rose Wednesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.10 percent from 3.13 percent late Tuesday.

Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 percent, Germany’s DAX index dropped 0.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.7 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average jumped 2.7 percent.