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.
Apple is on the verge of becoming the world's first publicly-traded $3 trillion company. The iPhone maker's stock needs to hit $182.86 to surpass the $3 trillion mark. CFRA Research senior industry analyst Angelo Zino joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Lance Ippolito, Head Trader at the Future Of Wealth, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell where he discusses the factors that have contributed to the recent slide of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.
Web3 software startup Thirdweb has raised $5 million in a funding round, coming from a group of high-profile investors, including Gary Vaynerchuk and Mark Cuban. Thirdweb says it is paving the way for the revolution surrounding the new iteration of the internet known as web3, by offering users free tools to build their own web3 projects. Thirdweb's co-founders Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Decentralized talent network Braintrust recently closed an atypical equity deal that involved investors buying $100 million in Braintrust tokens, the company's cryptocurrency. Braintrust's talent network is built on blockchain technology, which the company says allows it to be owned and built by users, instead of a centrally-controlled corporation. Braintrust users can also earn tokens for their contributions to the network and its growth. Braintrust co-founder Adam Jackson joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Blue Origin launched its third manned mission over the weekend with 'Good Morning America' host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard on board, alongside several Blue Origin investors.
This comes after the spaceflight firm launched two successful missions to the edge of space earlier this year. How will these missions set up Blue Origin for success as it competes with SpaceX and other companies for space tourism domination and more? Joey Roulette, space reporter at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
If there's any question about whether inflation is here to stay, today's November consumer price index data gives us an answer. This is the second month in a row we've seen a hot inflation reading — CPI last month rose to 6.8%, after jumping to 6.2% in October. Amid the holiday shopping season, what does this mean for consumers? And how will the Federal Reserve move forward after previously announcing it would speed up its asset taper timeline? Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss November's CPI jump, where consumers are hurting the most, what the Fed could do to help ease inflation, and more.
Editorial and stock photo provider Getty Images is gearing up to make its public debut via a SPAC merger with CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II bringing it to a $4.8 billion valuation. CEO Craig Peters joined Cheddar to break down the decision to go public and noted that the merger will help to pay down debt. "That's going to really enable a lot of additional free cash flow and financial flexibility into the business," he noted. "That's just going to allow us to just invest more aggressively into the business to accelerate what is already accelerating growth." Peters also discussed the legacy image platform's place going forward in the expanding world of digital assets like NFTs and the metaverse.
Ben Schiller, the managing editor for features and opinion at CoinDesk, breaks down how the year's top 10 crypto influencers were selected and what to expect from the blockchain ecosystem, especially the growth of NFTs, in 2022. "This whole crypto story has become not just a story about money or the future of money," he said. "It's also become a cultural story where it's getting into gaming, it's getting into artwork, into collectibles, and all kinds of cultural categories it wasn't in before." Schiller noted that he expects the U.S. and other world governments to establish crypto regulations in the coming year.
Ford said it will ramp up production for its Mustang Mach-E as demand for the electric vehicle surges. The automaker expects to sell upwards of 200,000 annually by 2023.
