US STOCKS-Wall Street rises with investors rotating into healthcare and value stocks
The Dow led Wall Street higher on Tuesday as investors focused on value stocks such as healthcare, while technology lagged after rebounding a day earlier. Healthcare led gains among the S&P 500's 11 major sector indexes and was up 2.3% after hitting a record high. Big gainers included drugmakers, such as Eli Lilly, up almost 4% and the biggest boost to the benchmark index, and Moderna, up more than 5%.
Real estate and utility sectors were also outperforming, with both up more than 1%, along with the small cap Russell 2000 index, which added 1.7%. Declines in megacap stocks pulled the communication services sector down. Energy shares were flat as oil prices dipped after touching a five-month high. Traders were weighing a meeting between the Iranian president and Pakistan's army chief, a key US-Iran mediator, against Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure and reports of vessel attacks in the Gulf.
TECH STOCKS UP SLIGHTLY Technology stocks barely gained on Tuesday after rebounding sharply on Monday. Last week's selloff was fueled in part by concerns over the cost of financing for AI developments, with cloud company CoreWeave at the center of those worries.
"Equity investors are still a little skeptical around the AI trade and the ability for some of these companies to monetize their investments, so you're seeing a bit of a rotation into other areas of the market," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, pointing to advances in small caps and sectors including healthcare. "Investors are looking for other opportunities outside of tech, and healthcare is one of the beneficiaries of that," he said.
At 2:08 p.m. ET (1808 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518.51 points, or 1%, to 52,485.50, the S&P 500 gained 31.24 points, or 0.4%, to 7,721.44 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 54.84 points, or 0.2%, to 26,482.94. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index rose 0.5%. While the S&P 500 value index was up 0.8%, its growth counterpart was down 0.02%.
Investors were looking ahead to earnings reports from SpaceX and Netflix, due after the market close. Meta and Tesla are scheduled to report on Wednesday. Meta, down 2.2%, and Netflix, off 0.9%, were among the weakest stocks in communication services, along with Alphabet, which lost more than 1%.
General Motors shares dropped more than 8% and were the S&P 500's biggest laggards, after the automaker signaled pressure in coming months from higher commodity costs and lower truck sales. 3M gained 5.9% after the company said it was expanding its data-center partnership with Amazon and issued a warrant to an Amazon subsidiary to purchase 3M common stock worth over $521 million. The industrial conglomerate also raised its full-year profit forecast.
Credit reporting firm Equifax jumped more than 10% after it reported third-quarter profit above analysts' estimates. It was among the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainers on the day, along with Hasbro. The toymaker gained 10% after it raised its full-year forecast for both overall revenue and its digital gaming business. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.46-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, where there were 97 new highs and 193 new lows.
On the Nasdaq, 3,416 stocks rose and 1,269 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.69-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 224 new lows.
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