A sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange, July 8, 2021. Wall Street indexes are hovering around record levels in early trading Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021 as energy stocks again took the lead. Oil and gas producers were the best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 in the early going as energy prices moved higher again, pulling out of a recent slump. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
By Alex Veiga
Wall Street delivered more milestones Tuesday after a modest pickup in stocks nudged the S&P 500 to an all-time high and the Nasdaq composite climbed above 15,000 for the first time.
The benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.2% after a relatively quiet day in the market. Banks and a mix of retailers, travel companies and restaurant chains accounted for much of the upward move. Those gains offset a slide in health care companies, household goods makers and technology stocks.
Investors bid up shares in homebuilders after the government reported that sales of new U.S. homes rose modestly last month. Small-company stocks outpaced the rest of the market. Treasury yields mostly edged higher. The price of crude oil had its second solid gain in a row, clawing back more of the ground it lost over the previous two weeks.
While investors have been monitoring the developments overseas in Afghanistan and with the coronavirus and its highly contagious delta variant, the absence of any new, bad news today may have helped keep the market moving higher, said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading & derivatives at Charles Schwab.
“In a bull market, in an absence of negative catalysts, you tend to get some upside movement,” Frederick said. “It’s slow and gradual, but it continues to trudge forward.”
The S&P 500 rose 6.70 points to 4,486.23. It was the index's fourth-straight gain and its first record high since early last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30.55 points, or 0.1%, to 35,366.26. The Nasdaq composite climbed 77.15 points, or 0.5%, to 15,019.80. The tech-heavy index also finished at a record high on Monday.
Small-company stocks outgained the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index rose 22.61 points, or 1%, to 2,230.91.
Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.29% from 1.25% the day before.
The market’s latest gains bolster its comeback after last week, when the S&P 500 posted its first weekly loss after two weeks of gains. Stocks rose on Monday as investors welcomed the Food & Drug Administration’s full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine amid expectations that it may make vaccination adoption more widespread.
The Pfizer vaccine approval has given cities and companies the legal backing to start requiring mandates. On Monday, New York City and the Department of Defense announced vaccine requirements. Shares in Pfizer fell 3.1% Tuesday. Moderna, another coronavirus vaccine maker, dropped 4.1%.
Best Buy jumped 8.3% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting results that were better than analysts were expecting and raising its full-year forecast.
Travel companies also made gains. Las Vegas Sands rose 7.5% and Wynn Resorts added 7%. Airlines and cruise line operators also rose. American Airlines picked up 3.8% and Delta Air Lines added 3.4%, while Norwegian Cruise Line climbed 4.6% and Carnival rose 4.4%.
Halliburton, Occidental Petroleum and Valero Energy rose 3% or more as the price of U.S. crude oil rose 2.9%.
Investors will be looking to the Federal Reserve as the Kansas City Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming starts later this week. It will likely provide Wall Street with more insight into what the Fed may do about inflation. The concern among investors is that the Fed will reduce its bond-buying program later this year to combat inflation.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
