Wall Street climbs as Apple, bank stocks jump

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(Reuters) – Wall Street rallied on Tuesday, lifted by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), while a jump in Treasury yields elevated banking stocks ahead of a key inflation reading this week.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq reversed early losses and gained in afternoon trading, with heavyweight growth stocks Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) each up more than 1%.

The S&P 500 banking index jumped climbed 1.9% as the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit its highest level since November 2019 on mounting expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will start tightening monetary policy. [US/]

Shares of Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) gained between 1% and 3% each.

The S&P 500 energy sector index dropped almost 2% as investors worried the resumption of indirect talks between the United States and Iran could revive an international nuclear agreement and allow more oil exports from the OPEC producer.

Upbeat comments French President Emmanuel Macron about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis also dented oil prices and reduced anxiety on Wall Street, said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Charlotte-based wealth management firm Horizon Investments.

“Today’s gain is probably due to some of the Macron headlines, but it’s also just recognition of the fact that the economy is in pretty good shape, and we probably overdid it a little to the downside,” Ladner said.

With Tuesday’s gains, the S&P 500 remains down about 5% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has lost over 9%.

U.S. consumer prices data, set to be released on Thursday, is forecast at a four-decade high of 7.3%. The numbers follow strong U.S. labor data last week that added to investor concerns that the Fed will tighten rates faster than thought.

Concerns around aggressive policy tightening by the U.S. central bank, geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and a mixed bag of results from Big Tech have weighed on the major U.S. indexes since the start of the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1% at 35,442.45 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.71% to 4,515.77.

The Nasdaq Composite added 0.97% to 14,151.41.

Earnings were mixed on Tuesday, with Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) down 3.4% after the drugmaker’s full-year sales forecast for its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral pills fell short of estimates.

Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) surged 8.5% after the company announced a buyback of up to $6 billion and forecast earnings would more than double by 2030.

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms fell 2.5% after billionaire investor Peter Thiel decided to step down from the company’s board, driving a fourth day of losses in the stock after its bleak forecast last week wiped out billions of dollars in market value.

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) Inc soared 29% despite slashing its revenue forecast as the exercise bike maker said it would replace its chief executive and cut jobs in a bid to revive sagging sales.

Coty (NYSE:COTY) Inc climbed almost 8% after the cosmetics seller raised its earnings forecast for 2022.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.58-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.52-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 93 new lows.