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.
Coinbase reported third quarter earnings yesterday and revenue did not at all meet estimates, with the company saying that it also saw a staggering decrease of about 1.4 million customers in comparison to the previous quarter. This comes in the same week where bitcoin and ethereum, two of its most important digital assets hit record highs. Martin Gaspar, research analyst at CrossTower explains how a soft crypto trading quarter contributed to the less-than-ideal revenue outcome.
John Jannarone, Editor-In-Chief at IPOedge.com, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss Riivian ahead of its public debut on the Nasdaq, as investors gear up for the biggest IPO for a U.S. company since Facebook.
DoorDash is set to acquire European-based food delivery company Wolt in an $8.1 billion deal. Ann Berry, chief investment officer at media platform Wheelhouse, joined Cheddar to discuss how this positions DoorDash in the prepared food and potentially the grocery delivery space. "I do think that what DoorDash is trying to be thoughtful about now is how to take that there's been a shift in consumer behavior in terms of mobile ordering and delivery and try and apply it to other categories," she said, also pointing to its partnership with beauty supply company Ulta.
Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos took to the stage at the U.N.'s COP26 Climate Summit to unveil a new plan to combat climate change, but some say it might do more harm than good. Justine Calma, Science Reporter at The Verge, joined Cheddar to discuss.
Misfits Market, the grocery delivery company that capitalizes on curbing food waste, expanded into California for the first time on Wednesday. Abhi Ramesh, founder and CEO, joined Cheddar to discuss the launch in the Golden State, after the company's beginnings in Philadelphia and experiencing a wave of growth amid the pandemic. He noted that the expansion was an opportunity to provide West Coast communities with fresh produce as "one in five California households are in food deserts and don't have access to fresh, healthy food."
George Seay, CEO of Annandale Capital, talks about the supply chain issues and labor shortages impacting the tech sector, and where to hedge as inflation rises.
The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to block Penguin Random House from acquiring its rival Simon & Schuster. The DOJ hopes this will block the merger, which it says would ultimately hurt authors and consumers nationwide. Barry C. Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute, joined Cheddar to explain what the lawsuit signals about the Biden administration's approach to cracking down on antitrust, and why Amazon might be next.
Bryan Freeman, Executive Chairman of Real Good Foods, discusses the need for healthy meal choices in the frozen food space and what expansion for the company looks like.
Lance Ippolito, Head Trader at The Future of Wealth, talks about the health of the tech sector amid the supply chain challenges and the catalysts fueling record highs on the stock market.
Darren Schuringa, Founder & CEO of ASYMmetric ETFs, discusses the major risks to markets and offers ways to hedge high inflation as consumer spending continues to rise.
