Major Averages Close On Firm Note As Stocks Rally After Early Struggle

After struggling for direction till a little past noon on Tuesday, stocks began climbing higher, and continued to gain in strength to eventually end the day’s session a firm note.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates rendered the mood cautious early on in the session, with investors digesting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the ECB Forum in ., and the JOLTS report that showed a slight increase in job openings in the country.

Stocks moved higher after bond yields drifted down. The major averages all ended on a firm note, with the Nasdaq outperforming the Dow and S&P 500.

The Dow ended with a gain of 162.33 points or 0.41 percent at 39,331.85. The S&P 500 settled at 5,509.01, gaining 33.92 points or 0.62%, while the Nasdaq advanced 149.46 points or 0.84 percent, to 18,028.76.

Data from the Labor Department showed the number of job openings rose to 8.140 million in May, up 221,000 from a month earlier.

Redbook Research said the Redbook Index in the U.S. increased by 5.8 percent in the week ending June 29, compared to the same week in the previous year.

Investors also noted Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at a central banking forum in Sintra, Portugal. Powell expressed satisfaction with the progress on inflation but said he wants to see more before being confident enough to start cutting interest rates.

“We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2% before we start the process of reducing or loosening policy,” he said.

Investors looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

The report, which is expected to show a slowdown in the pace of job growth in the month of June, could impact the outlook for interest rates.

On the political front, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official actions he took while in office, has stoked speculation about the possibility of another Trump presidency.

Tesla Inc. shares soared more than 10 percent, after the company reported higher than expected sales in the April-June quarter. The electric vehicle maker said it sold 436,956 vehicles in the latest quarter, down 4.8 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. But the numbers were better than what analysts had forecast.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. shares rallied about 4.2 percent. Apple Inc., Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, JP Morgan Chase, Visa, Mastercard, Costco, Bank of America, Adobe Inc, Texas Instruments, GE Aerospace, IBM, Analog Devices and Airbnb gained 1 to 2.5 percent.

Nike, Verizon Communications, Eli Lilly and Nvidia ended weak.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors pondered what the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity decision meant for former president Donald Trump.

European stocks closed lower, weighed down by the developments on the political front in the region, comments from some ECB officials that the central bank is unlikely to cut interest rates anytime soon, and lingering uncertainty about the outlook for U.S. interest rates.