US stocks rise on solid earnings from DuPont, Pfizer

US stocks moved higher in early trade Tuesday following solid earnings reports from Dow members DuPont and Pfizer, but Twitter shares plunged on worries over subscriber growth.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 16,887.25, up 69.31 points (0.41 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 10.97 (0.56 percent) to 1,972.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 41.92 (0.93 percent) to 4,527.85.
Chemical company DuPont rose 0.2 percent as third-quarter earnings jumped more than 50 percent to $433 million.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer advanced 0.5 percent as earnings came in at $2.7 billion, up 2.9 percent from the prior year. Stronger sales in vaccines and some other products offset the negative hit from patent expirations on other medications.
Twitter sank 13 percent as it reported a 23 percent rise in monthly users to 284 million. Analysts said the microblogging site's user trends are discouraging compared with rival Facebook.
Madison Square Garden jumped 11.1 percent as it announced that it may split itself into separate companies, with one division focusing on entertainment and the other on media and sports.
Metals producer Freeport-McMoran dropped 4.4 percent as third quarter net income fell 32.8 percent to $552 million due to lower prices for gold and copper.
Department store chain Kohl's slumped 7.4 percent after announcing that it expects comparable sales to drop 1.4 percent in the third quarter and that 2014 earnings will be at the low end of its forecasted range.
Investors are keeping their eyes on the Federal Reserve's two day policy meeting which opens Tuesday. The Fed is expected to end its bond-buying program and could possibly offer some fresh guidance on plans to raise benchmark interest rates in 2015.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.28 percent from 2.26 percent Monday, while the 30-year advanced to 3.06 percent from 3.03 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.