USA Women's Olympic Water Polo Goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson holds her gold medal as she poses for photos outside the New York Stock Exchange, before ringing the opening bell, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
Stocks capped another wobbly day of trading on Wall Street with modest gains Tuesday, as financial and industrial companies helped lift the market, outweighing a pullback in technology stocks.
The S&P 500 recovered from an early slip and eked out a 0.1% gain, enough to eclipse the record high it set Friday. The majority of companies in the benchmark index made gains, but they were kept in check by technology companies, which have an outsized weight on the S&P 500.
Banks made some of the strongest gains as bond yields edged higher. Banks benefit from higher yields, which allow them to charge higher interest rates on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.35% from 1.31% late Monday.
Oil prices pulled up after sliding most of the last week and into Monday. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 2.7% and helped lift the S&P 500's energy sector to 1.7% gain. Exxon Mobil rose 1.7% and Chevron gained 1.8%.
The broader market remains choppy with investors in the midst of a relatively quiet week. The latest round of corporate earnings is nearly finished and there are only a few pieces of economic data expected.
“We think this is a growing market and a growing economy and there’s room for this market to move,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “But that growth story does have some risk to it.”
The S&P 500 gained 4.40 points to 4,436.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 162.82 points, or 0.5%, to 35,264.67. The blue-chip index also notched an all-time high.
The slide in technology stocks weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which lost 72.09 points, or 0.5%, to 14,788.09. Small company stocks rose. The Russell 2000 index gained 4.55 points, or 0.2%, to 2,239.36.
Wall Street is still trying to gauge the pace of economic growth amid new worries about the latest wave of COVID-19 from the more contagious delta variant. Parts of Japan, including Tokyo, the capital, remain under a state of emergency as surging numbers of infections put more COVID-19 patients in already overburdened hospitals.
Analysts have said that the pace of growth will likely continue to slow as the year rolls on, but the latest surge with the virus has raised more concerns about just how much. Investors could have a better sense of the virus' impact on the economy in the coming months as schools reopen from summer break and people try to get back to normal activities, Haworth said.
Inflation concerns and the Federal Reserve's future plans to ease up on its support for low interest rates also hangs over the markets.
Earnings season is wrapping up with several big names. Sysco surged 6.5% after the food distributor reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street's estimates.
Ebay will report its results on Wednesday and Walt Disney will report results on Thursday.
Kansas City Southern jumped 7.5% after Canadian Pacific raised its offer for the railroad operator, reigniting a bidding war with Canadian National.
Andrew Arons, Founder and Partner at Synergy Advisory Management Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down Tuesday's market action and provides his insight on Snap's historic slide after the comments made by CEO Evan Spiegel.
Peter Andersen, CIO at Andersen Capital Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down Monday's trading action and discusses whether this could be the start of a new rally or a blip in an otherwise disappointing stretch.
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
China's largest ride-hailing company will no longer be listed on the world's largest stock exchange. Didi shareholders voted on Monday to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, less than a year after launching a $4.4 billion IPO with the most significant U.S. share offering by a Chinese company since Alibaba debuted in 2014. Since going public in June of last year, around $70 billion has been wiped from Didi's market value and shares of the company have dropped nearly 90%. Now, Didi is expected to begin preparations to list in Hong Kong. Kevin T. Carter, founder and Chief Investment Officer of EMQQ Global, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Ahead of the Meta shareholder meeting, more than five hundred doctors have jointly sent a letter to investors to hold the Facebook parent accountable for the risks its platforms have posed to the public and mental health. Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan ER physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, joined Cheddar News to discuss how medical professionals are coming together to highlight the social media giant's spread of misinformation, especially during the pandemic. "We've seen the direct impacts of misinformation and disinformation that spreads like wildfire on the social media platforms," he said. "Our goal with this letter is to try to get the shareholders of Meta to convince leadership that they need to do a better job."
Snap downgraded its earnings and revenue expectations for the second quarter, saying the "macroeconomic environment" has deteriorated faster than the company anticipated. The warning sent shockwaves through the digital ad industry, dragging down a handful of other tech stocks, including Pinterest, Meta, and Twitter. Daniel Cobb, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer of Daniel Brian Advertising, joined Cheddar to discuss the reason behind this warning, and why it's bringing so many social media stocks down.
Pamela Rucker, CIO Advisor and Instructor for Harvard Professional Development, joins Cheddar to discuss how perceptions of Environmental, Social, and Governance–or ESG–changed over the past couple of years, and how using machine learning and artificial intelligence could pave the way to a more sustainable future.
Bob Lockett, Chief Diversity & Talent Officer, ADP, joins Cheddar to break down why offering more flexibility at work is a top way to retain talent at work, and how strong DEI policies help encourage employee loyalty.
