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By Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit (Reuters) -The S&P 500 and Dow rose on Tuesday, shaking off a weak start, as investors digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments, while parsing mostly positive third-quarter results from big U.S. banks. Powell said the U.S. labor market remained mired in its low-hiring, low-firing doldrums through September, though the economy overall "may be on a somewhat firmer trajectory than expected." He also said the central bank may soon end its balance sheet runoff. The remarks reassured investors at a time when key economic data remains delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown. "The bulls remain fully in charge and until that's shaken with something more significant than these comments from Chair Powell or anything else, that's likely to be the case into the start of third-quarter tech earnings next week," said Michael James, equity sales trader at Rosenblatt Securities in Los Angeles. A slew of major lenders reported solid results on strong performance in the investment banking segment, helping the S&P 500 banking index rise 1.6%. Wells Fargo advanced 7.6% and was on track for its best day in six months and Citigroup added 4.3% after both lenders beat estimates for third-quarter profit. JPMorgan Chase raised its full-year forecast for net interest income and Goldman Sachs beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit. However, shares of both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, which have outperformed most rivals this year, fell 1.4% and 1.6%. BlackRock's assets under management hit a record $13.46 trillion, lifting its shares by 2.2%. "You have a lot of positive momentum in the markets from a technical standpoint, but then fundamentally you have the earnings season going on right now and people are very positive on the U.S. companies' earnings outlooks," said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors. At 12:58 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 309.37 points, or 0.67%, to 46,378.46, the S&P 500 gained 12.63 points, or 0.19%, to 6,667.35 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 50.73 points, or 0.22%, to 22,643.88. The S&P 500 tech sector dropped 1.1%, with losses in Nvidia and Broadcom weighing on the Nasdaq. Defensive plays led gains, with consumer staples and utilities adding 1.2% each, signaling investors were treading with caution. Gains in industrials stocks supported the Dow. Caterpillar rose 3.7% after J.P. Morgan raised its price target on the stock. Wall Street kicked off the session lower on concerns over Washington and Beijing's move to slap tit-for-tat additional port fees on ocean shipping firms. Global equities were shaken on Friday after Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Chinese goods over Beijing's rare earths curbs, though a softened tone over the weekend helped calm investor nerves and lift markets on Monday. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund edged up its 2025 global growth forecast on tariff shocks and financial conditions being more benign than expected, while warning that a renewed U.S.-China trade war could slow output significantly. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.72-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 89 new lows. (Reporting by Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. labor market remained mired in its low-hiring, low-firing doldrums through September, though the economy overall "may be on a somewhat firmer trajectory than expected," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday. He noted that at policymakers will take a "meeting-by-meeting" approach to any further interest rate cuts as they balance job market weakness with the fact that inflation remains well above their 2% target. Powell also said the end of the central bank's long-running effort to shrink the size of its holdings, widely known as quantitative tightening, or QT, may be coming into view. His comments came from the text of a speech prepared for delivery before a gathering held by National Association for Business Economics in Philadelphia. MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stocks were mixed, with the Dow and S&P 500 up on the day, while the Nasdaq was down. BONDS: U.S. Treasury yields extended their fall, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note slipping to 4.03% and the two-year note down at 4.1%. FOREX: The dollar index extended losses, now down 0.3% at 99.03. COMMENTS: STEVE SOSNICK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, INTERACTIVE BROKERS, GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT: "The reason for the sell-off overnight was concerns about the trade war re-accelerating between the US and China. But the markets decided that this isn't really a problem, at least in the short term." "The market was going up anyway. We were down 10 points before he started speaking so this is just the cherry on top of the cake on today's rally … but the bulk of the move was unrelated to his comments." ADAM SARHAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, 50 PARK INVESTMENTS, NEW YORK: "The fact is the (stock) market was extended. It pulled back to support technically, which is the 50-day moving average… and bounced off of it." "The Fed said nothing has changed. Even if (trade) tensions escalate… the Fed is still going to cut rates with the stock market at all-time highs. So, fundamentally, we have a tremendous tailwind coming into effect in the near future." PETER CARDILLO, CHIEF MARKET ECONOMIST, SPARTAN CAPITAL SECURITIES, NEW YORK: "I don't think (Powell) is changing his tune whatsoever. He's saying that the economy is on solid footing, but he's also saying we have weakness. What he's doing is he's preparing the markets for a series of rate cuts, but not necessarily in a sequential order." "He's saying is he'll cut (interest rates) by 25 basis points at the end of this month then they'll assess the situation. And if the labor market continues to weaken and actually loses jobs, then he might be setting us up for a jumbo cut of 50 basis points in December." "He's preparing the markets for a rate cut, but he also doesn't want the markets to assume rate cuts are a given. He’s using labor market weakness as a hedge." MICHAEL JAMES, EQUITY SALES TRADER, ROSENBLATT SECURITIES, LOS ANGELES: "I don't think any of these comments from Chairman Powell are going to have any direct impact on the overall market. It continues to be a market of sentiment and positioning. The Trump tariff tweet from Friday, causing all of the decline, seemed to get shrugged off with some of the comments over the weekend. We had a decent rally yesterday and pulling back this morning on some of the China shipping moves but that also was being relatively dismissed. You can see that in the magnitude of the rally that we've had from this morning." "The bulls remain fully in charge and until that's shaken with something more significant than these comments from Chair Powell or anything else, that's likely to be the case into the start of third-quarter tech earnings next week."  "There are bigger factors in place related to positioning and up the start of tech earnings season next week that are going to be far bigger determinants of the market's direction than these comments from Chair Powell will be." (Reporting by Stephen Culp, Sinead Carew, Caroline Valetkevitch, and Twesha Dikshit)

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By Anshi Sancheti, Juveria Tabassum and Waylon Cunningham (Reuters) -Domino's Pizza beat expectations for quarterly profit and U.S. same-store sales on Tuesday, driven by promotions and new menu items as consumers tighten their budgets amid economic uncertainty. Persistent inflation and repeated menu price hikes have prompted consumers to prioritize value when dining out or ordering in, and move to smaller pack sizes for snacks.  Sales in the restaurant industry were beginning to slow, CFO Sandeep Reddy said on a post-earnings call. The company's shares pared some premarket gains and were up about 3%. "We think the timing of Domino's fiscal quarter supported sales growth as the macro slowdown in restaurant spending has grown more acute in September," said Matt Goodman, analyst at M Science. Still, Domino's efforts such as its $9.99 pizza offer, which was revived in August, and fresh items like parmesan-stuffed-crust pizza have helped cater to consumers who have curtailed spending, and drive demand. Domino's said it had stuck with the $9.99 pizza deal longer than it had planned as it helped drive demand at stores, and that it had been requested by franchisees. CEO Russell Weiner told Reuters he expected franchisee profitability to increase over last year, in contrast with some chains that have become wary of broad discounts cutting into franchisee profits. "We can have sustained value that's profitable, unlike other folks who are probably spending away their balance sheet to keep up," he said.  Its partnership with DoorDash was also helping attract more customers for food delivery, and would help boost sales in the U.S. through next year, Weiner said. U.S. same-store sales for the world's largest pizza chain rose 5.2% in the quarter, beating analysts' expectations of a 4.0% increase, according to LSEG data. Domino's has been rolling out more deals under its rewards program as it faces rising competition from fast-food chains like McDonald's and Burger King, which have introduced steep discounts to draw in diners. A weaker point came in international same-store sales, where a 1.7% increase missed estimates of 1.9%, as demand remained choppy in markets such as Japan and Australia. In August, Australia-based franchisee Domino's Pizza Enterprises, which has markets from Asia to Europe, posted its first annual loss since going public two decades ago. Weiner said Domino's has been consulting the franchisee, which appointed its third CEO in the last one year and which represents a third of Domino's business. "They are really trying to turn around their business, particularly in France and Japan, and we're working with them on it," Weiner said. Domino's earnings per share for the quarter ended September 7 were $4.08, beating estimates of $3.97. (Reporting by Anshi Sancheti and Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Leroy Leo)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)