US stocks hit records on Tuesday as profits kept piling up for companies and as oil prices eased. The S&P 500 shot up 1.8%, and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a couple months ago.
Market Performance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 907 points, or 1.7%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%. Palantir Technologies helped lead the way and surged 29.5% after CEO Alex Karp said its overall revenue leaped 93% in what he called an ‘otherworldly’ quarter.
Caterpillar climbed 5.6% after the heavy-equipment maker likewise reported stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected. They’re the latest companies to deliver even better profits for the latest quarter than investors expected, following strong results from Amazon, Microsoft and others.
Coming into this week, companies in the S&P 500 index were on track to deliver growth of nearly 50% in earnings per share for the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That would be the biggest such jump since 2021, when the economy was roaring back to life after cratering in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oil Prices and Inflation
Also helping stocks on Tuesday was another drop for oil prices. Brent crude, the international standard, sank 5.3% to $79.36 per barrel as hope once again took over from fear in the oil market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.62% from 4.70% Monday and from 4.75% at the end of last week. That’s a notable move for the bond market, though it remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran.
Original reporting: 40/29 / KHBS (NW Arkansas) — read the source article.
