In this March 23, 2021 file photo, pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
Technology and health care companies led a broad rally on Wall Street Tuesday that helped stocks overcome a wobbly start and recoup their losses from a day earlier.
The S&P 500 rose 0.8% after having been down 0.3% in the early going. The gain inched the benchmark index to an all-time high, eclipsing the record it set early last week.
Banks, industrial companies and energy stocks also helped push the S&P 500 higher. Communications companies were the only laggard. Treasury yields were mixed.
Investors weighed another large swath of company earnings reports Tuesday, including quarterly snapshots from Ralph Lauren and Clorox. While earnings have been strong, Wall Street remains cautious over COVID-19 and its potential impact on a still recovering economy amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
This mutant version of COVID-19 is still reason for caution, but it likely won’t have a significant impact on the economy’s reopening and recovery because hospitalizations are relatively tame and fatalities are very low in comparison to infections, said Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at Glenmede.
“We may still deal with the lingering residual effects of the pandemic,” Pride said. “You’ve probably got a period of time where the economy has to restitch itself back together.”
The S&P 500 rose 35.99 points to 4,423.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 278.24 points, or 0.8%, to 35,116.40. and the Nasdaq composite index picked up 80.23 points, or 0.6%, to 14,761.29.
Smaller company stocks also notched gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 8.09 points, or 0.4%, to 2,223.58.
Investors are in the midst of earnings season, with more than 100 companies in the S&P 500 index reporting their results this week. So far earnings have been strong, with roughly nine out of every 10 companies beating analysts' expectations.
Clorox slumped 9.5%, the stock's biggest single-day drop since 2000, after reporting results that fell short of forecast and releasing a disappointing outlook.
Solid financial results helped lift several other companies. Ralph Lauren climbed 6.1% after handily beating analysts’ fiscal first-quarter profit forecasts as sales rebounded. Columbia Sportswear rose 0.6% after reporting a surprise second-quarter profit.
Activision Blizzard fell 3.5% after the head of Blizzard Entertainment said he would resign, effective immediately. Blizzard, maker of popular video games such as “Overwatch” and “World of Warcraft,” has been accused in a lawsuit of having a toxic work environment which has caused walkouts by employees.
Online broker Robinhood jumped 24.2% and topped its IPO price for the first time since its stock began trading last Thursday.
Bond yields were relatively stable. The yield on 10-year Treasury inched up to 1.18% from 1.17% from the day before. Less than a month ago, the 10-year note was trading around a yield of 1.35%.
Investors will be watching closely when the Labor Department releases its July jobs report Friday. Economists surveyed by FactSet forecast that the employers created 837,500 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 5.7%.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
