The S&P 500 climbed 0.2% on Tuesday. The Nasdaq 100 jumped 1%, while the Russell 2000 dropped 0.3%.
Gains among megacaps pushed stocks up. All Magnificent 7 stocks advanced, except for Tesla, which fell 1.1%. Alphabet, which reported earnings after the bell, rose 1.8% to finish the day. Among chip stocks, Broadcom was up 4.2% after Reuters reported that the company was working with OpenAI to build its first chip. AMD, which also reported after close on Tuesday, rose 4%. The technology sector led all major S&P sectors, with the ETF up 1.4%.
Beyond tech, however, most S&P 500 sectors retreated. The utilities sector fell the most by 2.1%, followed by the energy sector, which lost 1.5%. A slew of oil and energy companies slumped, joining crude oil futures, which edged down. Both the US and global crude benchmarks settled at their lowest point since September.
The market today saw the start of a busy earnings week. DR Horton was the biggest laggard of the day, down 7.2%, as homebuilders struggled with declining sales and started to offer new incentives for buyers. VF Corp, the parent company of Vans, surged 27% following an earnings beat. Glass company Corning rose 4.7% as enterprise customers demand more materials for data centers.
With the Federal Reserve’s next meeting just about a week away, the JOLTS report showed US job openings kept falling in September, hitting their lowest level since early 2021. Treasury yields moved little. Gold climbed. Bitcoin briefly flirted with an all-time high.