U.S. stocks rose Tuesday, helped by a more than 6 percent jump in shares of American Express Co. after the Dow component said it will spin off its personal finance unit. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, helped push the Standard & Poor's 500 index higher as it rose 2.5 percent to $52.88 a day after it posted the biggest quarterly profit ever for a U.S. company. Semiconductor stocks also gained, lifting the Nasdaq, after broker CSFB said it upgraded its recommendation on the global chip sector to a 'benchmark' weighting for the first time in almost two years. Applied Materials Inc., maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, rose 2.1 percent to $16.24. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 54.61 points, or 0.52 percent, at 10,544.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 6.38 points, or 0.54 percent, at 1,187.65. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.56 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,066.97. --More 2315 Local Time 2015 GMT
