The House of Representatives has passed a three-month debt ceiling suspension, pushing stock markets into the black today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.63%) is up 0.57% on the day, and the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.52%) has gained 0.2%.
The debt ceiling has been put off for three months by the House of Representatives in a bill that will now go to the Senate. If passed, it would set up a battle over the actual budget, rather than the debt ceiling. The good news is that the debt ceiling wasn't used as a political pawn that could have sent the economy into a tailspin -- at least not for now.
The stock driving the Dow higher is IBM (IBM 1.70%). The tech giant posted strong earnings results, and the stock is up 4.9% as of 3:20 p.m. EST. Revenue was flat, and earnings rose 6% to $5.39 per share, $0.14 above estimates. That's the 40th straight quarter in which the company has beaten estimates -- an amazing string of results. Since the Dow is a price-weighted index and IBM is now above $205 per share, today's gain has dragged the otherwise lackluster index higher.
Disney (DIS 1.40%) is the other big mover on the Dow today, climbing 2.6%. There's no headline-making news out on Disney today, but it did announce that an Aladdin musical would make its way to Broadway. The musical will start in Toronto and is set to hit Broadway in 2014. The company also received bullish reviews from analysts at B. Riley & Co. in a research report released today. Disney is now at a new 52-week high, but considering the company's strong strategic position in media and the earnings momentum, I don't think the stock will stop climbing now.
In commodity trading, oil fell 1.3% to $95.45 after the IMF reduced its global growth forecast to 3.5% in 2013 from a previous estimate of 3.6%. The Seaway pipeline's capacity has also been cut to 175,000 barrels per day, putting additional downward pressure on oil.
