ATK (NYSE: ATK) and Orbital Sciences (NYSE: ORB) recorded the largest increases among listed companies as both firms said Tuesday they will continue to pursue the two-part transaction that sees ATK’s sporting group become an independent company and Orbital acquire ATK’s aerospace and defense businesses.
Many stocks in the U.S. jumped Tuesday as traders reacted to news out of Japan that political leaders started to discuss potential methods to jump-start that country’s economy and comments from the European Central Bank’s chief that easy-money policies could go into place,  the Wall Street Journal reported.
Third-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies that reported results are up 8.1 percent over the prior year period and beat analysts’ expectations of 4.5-percent increase in growth, according to the Journal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an intraday record on the way to an all-time record close of 17687.82 — an increase of 0.23 percent.
The S&P 500 also rose 0.51 percent over Monday to close at a record  2051.80 and the NASDAQ composite index increased 0.67 percent to 4702.44.
Top Percentage Gainers
Company | Stock Price | $ Change | % Change |
Orbital Sciences | $26.82 | $0.87 | 3.35% |
ATK | $114.16 | $2.20 | 1.96% |
McKesson | $207.99 | $3.61 | 1.77% |
Boeing | $130.66 | $2.24 | 1.74% |
Market Summary
Advancing Issues | 21Â (70.00%) |
Declining Issues | 9Â (30.00%) |
Unchanged Issues | 0Â (0.00%) |
The Executive Mosaic GovCon Index is a composite index that tracks 30 of the largest publicly-traded Government Contracting (GovCon) firms.