Qa'dah 13, 1431 / Oct. 21, 2010, SPA -- Stocks gained on Wednesday, as investors received mixed results from financial reports from Wells Fargo Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Boeing Company. Shares of Wells Fargo were up 4.8 percent after the bank posted a profit of $3.15 billion-up 19 percent from a year earlier and above what analysts estimated. The San Francisco, California, based bank's sales met analysts' expectations at $20.9 billion. Morgan Stanley reported a profit of $313 million for the third quarter-down 67 percent from a year ago, due to weak trading environment. Revenue also fell 20 percent compared to a year ago. Boeing said it earned $837 million on revenue of $17 billion, exceeding expectations for earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $16.8 billion. Stocks have been rising on speculation that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will announce plans to resume purchases of U.S. Treasuries, a policy called quantitative easing, when it meets next month. The Fed released its Beige Book report midday Wednesday, which showed that economic growth in various regions continued at a modest pace last month. Despite the slow housing market, the Fed reported better results in the manufacturing, travel, tourism, and auto industries. The U.S. dollar fell against the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for November delivery rose $2.28 to $81.77 a barrel. Gold futures rose $8.20 to $1,344.20 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 129.35, or 1.2 percent, to 11,107.97. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 12.27, or 1.1 percent, to 1,178.17. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 20.44, or 0.8 percent, to 2,457.39.
