A massive snowstorm descending on New York dulled Wall Street trade, but stocks ended a bit higher, helped by some positive quarterly earnings reports.
After a slow start, with some worries about the victory of the leftist Syriza party in Greek elections, stocks picked up on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 6.10 points (0.03 per cent) at 17,678.70.
The broader S&P 500 added 5.27 (0.26 per cent) at 2,057.09, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 13.88 points (0.29 per cent) at 4,771.76.
“Trading was rather subdued because of the snow and lots of traders coming home early,” said Mace Blicksilver, director at Marblehead Asset Management.
Though the storm could lock down much of New York, markets were slated to be open for normal hours on Tuesday.
One beneficiary was the power generator-maker Generac Holdings, which added 4.5 per cent on expectations the storm could boost sales.
Schlumberger (+2.0 per cent) and Chevron (+1.9 per cent) led major listed companies, both rising despite another fall in the price of crude oil. ExxonMobil added 1.0 per cent.
Among other gainers was Twitter, adding 1.7 per cent, and Pfizer, up 1.1 per cent. Pfizer releases quarterly results before the market opens on Tuesday.
Losers included Intel (-1.8 per cent), Google (-0.9 per cent) and Amazon (-0.9 per cent).
Toymaker Mattel sank 5.0 per cent after reporting poor sales for the crucial fourth quarter and letting go its chief executive. Preliminary results said sales fell 5.7 per cent to $US1.99 billion ($A2.51 billion) from a year earlier, and earnings per share dropped 58.9 per cent to 44 US cents.
The company announced that Bryan Stockton had resigned as chairman and chief executive. Christopher Sinclair, a Mattel board member and veteran executive of the food industry, was named chairman and interim CEO.
Bond prices fell slightly. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.83 per cent from 1.82 per cent on Friday, while the 30-year moved to 2.40 per cent from 2.39 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
