Results of Bank Tests Help Lift the Dow

Wall Street ticked mostly higher Thursday as investors considered both the upsides and downsides of the US economy remaining stronger than feared.

• The S&P 500 rose 19 points, or 0.4%, to 43,396.
• The Dow rose 269 points, or 0.8%, to 34,122.
• The tech-focused Nasdaq slipped a fraction of a point to 13,591.

One factor helping the generally positive results: The Federal Reserve said late Wednesday that the nation's 23 largest banks would be able to survive a severe recession in its latest "stress test" of the system, per the AP. Failing the test would have restricted banks from paying dividends or buying back their own stock to send cash to shareholders. Much scrutiny has been on smaller and mid-size banks as Wall Street hunts for the next potential weak links in the system. Several rose Thursday to trim their big losses from earlier this year. PacWest Bancorp gained 3.4%, for example.

Rite Aid, meanwhile, rose 4% after reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. On the losing end of Wall Street was Micron Technology, which fell 3.9% for one of the biggest declines in the S&P 500 after forecasting a larger loss for the summer than analysts expected. Spices company McCormick fell 4.9% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than expected, though its profit topped expectations.

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