(The following appeared at CNN.com on January 29.)
NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Transportation Index ETF (IYT) rallied to a one-month high Tuesday following solid fourth-quarter earnings at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and better-than-expected durable goods orders figures.
The ETF rose 1.2% to $81.79 in recent trading, after earlier rising as much as 1.7% to an intra-session high of $82.25, the best level since Dec. 31.
Burlington Northern earlier reported fourth-quarter net income of $517 million, or $1.46 a share, compared with $519 million, or $1.42 a share, in the same period a year earlier, when there were more shares outstanding.
The mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for earnings of $1.39 a share.
Total revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $4.25 billion from $3.88 billion in the year-ago quarter. The consensus on Wall Street was for fourth-quarter revenue of $4.06 billion.
Shares of Burlington Northern rose 2.1% to $84.87 after hitting an intraday high of $85.19, the highest price seen Dec. 17.
Separately, the Commerce Department said Tuesday durable goods orders rose 5.2% in December, well above the median estimate of economists surveyed by IFR Markets of a 1.6% increase.
Excluding transportation, orders rose 2.6%, against analyst expectations of an unchanged reading.
Among the ETF’s other heavily-weighted components, shares of Union Pacific Corp. rose 12 cents to $121.34, Fedex Corp. advanced 72 cents to $92.67, and United Parcel Service rose 26 cents to $71.31.
Overseas Shipholding Group rallied 3.3% to $64.56 and Norfolk Southern Corp. climbed 6 cents to $52.06.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. added 1.3% to $50.90 and CSX Corp. (NYSE:CSX) rose 16 cents to $47.38.