S&P 500 soars to fresh but Dow Jones retreats on earnings

The S&P 500 continued its historic run upward as investors looked to the day’s earnings stream for clues about the state of the economy and corporate America.

The S&P 500 increased by almost 0.3% to close at 4,864.61, a record high. Tuesday saw another big move in the Nasdaq Composite, which increased by 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased by roughly 0.2% following the blue-chip index’s first-ever break above 38,000 on Monday.

After a tech-driven rally pushed the market to new record highs, earnings in other sectors served as the key market movers on Tuesday. An earnings disappointment weighed on the Dow as 3M (MMM) tumbled more than 10% on Tuesday as the company’s 2024 profit outlook came in below Wall Street’s expectations.

The S&P 500’s top gainers were Communications Services and Consumer Staples, with staples climbing more than 1% as investors processed quarterly reports from companies including Verizon and Procter & Gamble.

In other news, United Airlines increased the price of its shares by 5% on Tuesday thanks to an optimistic estimate for its 2024 profits. After the prediction, which was made concurrently with United Airlines’ warning of potential damage from the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, shares of other airlines, such as Delt and American Airlines, increased.

With the streaming giant releasing its earnings report after the bell, Netflix is also in the spotlight. The firm and TKO Group’s WWE announced a partnership on Tuesday that will see Raw, the company’s main programme, available on the streaming service starting in January 2025. On the news, TKO shares increased by about 15%.