Gilead Sciences Surges but Twitter Plummets After-Hours Following the Releases of the Second Quarter Earnings Results

Wall Street closes in green and ends five days of falls with increases of 1% on average in its major indices. Investors regain confidence after an improvement in China's stock market while they are waiting for the Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

The Federal Reserve began a  two day's meeting and the institution will report if it increases or not the interest rate, which remain near zero since late 2008.

Further, the main European stock markets closed with gains on Tuesday, following the moderate decline in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Gilead Sciences Soars on Strong Results. Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) are up by 3.44% to $116.96 in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after the biopharmaceutical company reported better than expected earnings for Q2 ended June 30, 2015,  and  also raised its FY15 sales forecast to the range of $29 to $30 billion.

The company reported net income of $4.49 billion versus $3.7 billion from the same quarter a year ago, or $2.92 per share, up from $2.20. Excluding items, Non-GAAP net income, which excludes amounts related to acquisition, restructuring, stock-based compensation and other, climbed to $3.15 per diluted share from $2.36 per diluted share in 2014. Although analysts were expecting earnings of $2.71 per share on revenue of $7.61 billion, the California-based firm reported revenue of $8.24 billion, an increase in revenues of about 26.2% from $6.5 billion.

Further, Gilead updated its full year 2015 guidance, with sales expectations between $29 billion and $30 billion, above the $28 billion to $29 billion the company had previously forecast on April, 30, 2015.

Moreover, the Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.43 per share of common stock for the third quarter of 2015. The dividend is payable on September 29 to shareholders of record as of September 16.

Twitter Sales and Earnings Beat Wall Street Expectations. Shares of Twitter surged 5.3% during the regular trading day but plunge more than 11% after the bell. The social media company reported second-quarter earnings of $0.07 per share, beating the street's consensus of $0.04, on revenue of $502.38 million up by 61% when compared to $312.2 million a year ago and also beating the $481.2 million that analysts forecasted.

Wednesday Movers. Among the companies that will report its quarterly results tomorrow are: Altria (MO), Carter's (CRI), Facebook (FB), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT) and W. R. Grace & Co (GRA). Investors should keep an eye on these companies in Wednesday's trading session.