Wall Street closed mostly higher on Tuesday as strong third-quarter earnings results helped investors look past weakness in technology heavyweights. According to the Associated Press, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1% to close at 52,495.88, gaining 529.85 points in a choppy session in which 22 of the 30 components finished in positive territory.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to finish at 7,712.57, about 1.4% below its record close from early October, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped marginally to 26,424.82 as big technology names lagged. The small-cap Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.65% gain to 2,773.42, and Zacks reported that advancers outnumbered decliners by more than 2-to-1 on the NYSE. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 6.1% to 17.31.
Earnings were the day's driving force. Equifax jumped 11.3% on a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, Hasbro surged 11.2% after Magic: The Gathering topped $600 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, and 3M climbed nearly 6% after raising its full-year profit forecast and expanding its data-center partnership with Amazon. On the losing side, General Motors fell 6.8% despite a profit beat and a new $20 billion buyback, and GE Aerospace dropped about 4% as investors fretted over weaker-than-expected free cash flow.
Healthcare stocks hit a record high, with Eli Lilly the biggest contributor to the sector's gains, while the technology and communication services sectors slipped. Investors now turn to a packed Wednesday calendar, with Tesla, Meta, IBM, Texas Instruments and Lam Research all reporting after the closing bell, alongside fresh data on UK inflation and weekly US oil inventories.