Business briefing: Strong company earnings boost stock market

Surprisingly strong earnings from Netflix, UnitedHealth Group and other companies put investors in a buying mood Tuesday, driving U.S. stocks solidly higher. Health care stocks led the gainers. Materials, utilities and a broad swath of other companies also posted gains. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 75.54 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,161.94. Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.10 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,139.60. The Nasdaq composite index added 44.01 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,243.84. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 35 cents, or 0.7 percent, to close at $50.29 a barrel in New York.

A new survey by the real estate firm Zillow suggests that first-time buyers might be entering the market in greater numbers than industry watchers had assumed. Over the past year, the survey found, nearly half of home sales have gone to first-timers. That is a much higher proportion than some other industry estimates had indicated. And it comes as a surprise in part because ownership rates for adults under 34 are at their lowest levels since the government began tracking the figure in 1994. Zillow's survey results suggest that the trend is shifting, and that some of this year's growth in home sales has come from a wave of college-educated couples in their 30s, who are the most common first-time buyers.

German carrier Lufthansa is the latest airline to impose a total ban on passengers taking the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on any of its flights. The airline had previously banned the phone from flights in the United States and told passengers on other flights to keep the device switched off and unplugged.