Strong Apple earnings push US stocks higher

Apple's strong earnings helped push US stocks higher in opening trade Tuesday, offsetting the impact of third quarter profit drops from Coca-Cola and McDonald's.
Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 16,474.39, up 74.72 points (0.46 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 16.02 (0.84 percent) to 1,920.03, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 48.70 (1.13 percent) to 4,364.77.
Apple, the biggest US company by market capitalization, vaulted 3.1 percent as fourth-quarter profits jumped 13 percent to $8.5 billion on strong iPhone sales.