Tuesday’s closing price of US stocks was higher due to strong profits from premium firms and the attention of investors on Magnificent Seven and other megacap growth stocks’ quarterly results.
Tesla opens a new tab. began the technology industry’s earnings cycle after Tuesday’s market close by revealing the introduction of new electric car models and quarterly sales that fell short of expert projections. In trading over extended hours, its shares rose 6%.
Later this week, data from additional tech majors will be released, including Microsoft opening a new tab, Alphabet opening a new tab, and Meta Platforms opening a new tab.
Positive profits from businesses like General Motors opened a new tab, which closed up 4.4% following the automaker’s better-than-expected quarterly results and also helped to support the markets.
Gains in stocks in the communication services and technology sectors led to the advancement of ten out of eleven S&P 500 sectors. The steelmaker Nucor Corp., which lost ground by 8.9% following a first-quarter earnings miss, led the S&P Materials sector, which closed lower.
According to Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer of Atlanta’s Truist Advisory Services, “we’re having a continuation of an oversold balance that started yesterday, and the catalyst today is that markets are now refocused on earnings reports across a wide array of sectors that were strong.”
The S&P 500 opened the day up 59.95 points, or 1.20%, to 5,070.55, and the Nasdaq Composite opened the day up 245.34 points, or 1.59%, to 15,696.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 263.71 points, or 0.69%, to 38,503.69.
According to data released on Tuesday, lower demand caused U.S. business activity to drop to a four-month low in April, while inflation rates marginally decreased despite a significant increase in input costs, pointing to potential relief for rising consumer prices.
The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation indicator, the March Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, is expected on Friday, and investors will be watching for its release.
LSEG data shows that money markets are now pricing in just approximately 43 basis points of interest rate reductions, compared to roughly 150 bps at the beginning of the year.
“The PMI report was a little bit weaker and the employment was a little bit weaker and the market at this point is taking that is a bad-news-there-is-good-news, meaning the people are becoming too hawkish on Fed expectations,” Lerner stated.
Spotify announced a new tab that increased 11.4% following the Swedish music streaming behemoth’s first-ever gross profit of over one billion euros ($1.1 billion).
A positive full-year earnings projection contributed to GE Aerospace’s 8.3% increase in new tab shares. Danaher, the biosciences company, opened a new tab and gained 7.2% after exceeding quarterly earnings and sales projections.
Following weak first-quarter earnings, the low-cost carrier JetBlue opened a new tab and lowered its annual revenue projection, sending shares plunging nearly 19%.
On the NYSE, advances outweighed decliners by a ratio of 4.89 to 1. On the NYSE, there were 30 new lows and 86 new highs. 3,051 equities increased and 1,135 fell on the Nasdaq as advancing items outweighed declining ones by 2.69 to 1.
While the Nasdaq registered 57 new highs and 85 new lows, the S&P 500 recorded 12 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows.
10.57 billion shares were traded on US exchanges, below the 20-day average of 11.07 billion shares.
