Strong tech results propel S&P 500, Nasdaq
By April Joyner NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday following strong quarterly reports from several technology companies, including Microsoft Corp , but dour results from 3M Co stymied the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

By April Joyner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday following strong quarterly reports from several technology companies, including Microsoft Corp
Microsoft shares gained 2.0% as the tech giant's outlook for cloud computing services surpassed analysts' expectations, while shares of PayPal Holdings Inc
Shares of 3M dropped after the industrial conglomerate missed third-quarter sales estimates and lowered its full-year profit forecast. The company's U.S. sales dropped 1.1% and its Asia-Pacific sales fell 5% as industrial production slowed.
Individual company results have greatly swayed the direction of Wall Street's major indexes this week in the midst of earnings season. More than 80% of the 168 S&P 500 companies that have reported results have beaten profit expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
Yet the earnings season has also reflected signs of economic vulnerability, said John Carey, managing director at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston.
"On the whole, the earnings reports have supported a view of the economy as slowing," he said.
In particular, 3M's results pointed to continued fallout from the U.S.-China trade dispute, said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
"It's showing us that the tariff situation continues to be a major concern for companies in how to spend their money," Kinahan said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 28.42 points, or 0.11%, to 26,805.53, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 5.77 points, or 0.19%, to 3,010.29 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 66.00 points, or 0.81%, to 8,185.80.
After the bell, shares of Intel Corp
Lam Research Corp
Twitter shares plummeted 20.8% after the social networking company's revenue and profit missed estimates, in part due to technical issues with its ad platform.
Ford Motor Co
Dow Inc
Johnson & Johnson
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.20-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 54 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.47 billion shares, compared with the 6.48 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
(Reporting by April Joyner; Additional reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Dan Grebler)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
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