Visa powers Dow to 1.3% gain

Strong earnings by credit card giant Visa sent its stock soaring Thursday, almost single-handedly powering the Dow to a 1.3 percent gain. AP PHOTO/MARK LENNIHAN

NEW YORK–Strong earnings by credit card giant Visa sent its stock soaring Thursday, almost single-handedly powering the Dow to a 1.3 percent gain.

After a slow start that shrugged off a surprisingly strong 3.5 percent third-quarter growth estimate for the US economy, the other major indexes brooked selling across tech shares to score more modest gains by the end of trade.

Buyers also had to overcome technical glitches affecting shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange that bogged down trade during the day.

“It was handled in a relative calm fashion,” said Art Hogan of Wunderlich Securities. If it had happened on a down day, the result could have been panic, he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 221.11 points (1.30 percent) at 17,195.42.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 12.35 (0.62 percent) at 1,994.65, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 16.91 (0.37 percent) at 4,566.14.

Visa was the power behind the Dow, its shares surging 10.2 percent on the back of a nine percent gain in fiscal fourth-quarter revenues to $3.23 billion and a 17 percent rise in earnings per share, to $2.18.

Both measures handily beat forecasts, and the company further stirred buyers with a $5 billion share buyback plan.

Bristol-Meyers Squibb was another leading gainer, picking up 8.9 percent on positive results in tests for its lung cancer treatment Opdivo.

Other solid blue-chip gainers included DuPont (+1.3 percent), Johnson and Johnson (+1.4 percent), Merck (+2.0 percent) and Pfizer (+1.2 percent).

But a number of tech shares took a beating, led by Intel’s 4.0 percent fall as other chip makers, including Amtel and Intersil, turned in disappointing earnings.

Microsoft lost 1.2 percent, Facebook fell 2.3 percent, and Texas Instruments 1.7 percent.

Bond prices were higher. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.30 percent from 2.32 percent Wednesday, while the 30-year dipped to 3.04 percent from 3.05 percent. Bond yields and prices move inversely.