U.S. stocks finished higher on Tuesday for the third straight session as the Dow Jones Industrial Average logged its highest close in six weeks. A pullback in Treasury yields helped propel the major indexes higher, while stocks also benefited from the continued drumbeat of stronger-than-expected third-quarter corporate earnings.
What’s happening
The Dow
DJIA,
+1.07%
climbed 337.12 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 31,836.74, its highest closing level since Sept. 12, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The S&P 500
SPX,
+1.63%
advanced 61.77 points, or 1.6%, to close at 3,859.11.
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+15.79%
gained 246.50 points, or 2.3%, to close at 11,199.12.
The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq have all climbed for five of the last seven trading sessions. The S&P 500 on Tuesday saw its highest close since Sept. 19. What’s driving markets Stocks continued to build on their recent gains Tuesday, with all three major indexes rising to notable new highs. Investors were weighing results from Dow components Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
+2.40%
and 3M Co.
MMM,
+0.10%,
as well as General Electric Co.
GE,
-0.49%.
After the close, earnings were rolling in from Google parent Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+1.91%
and Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+1.38%.
See: Big Tech has been an earnings refuge for years, but safety is no longer a sure thing Treasury yields are continuing to drive trading in stocks, with lower yields helping boost equity prices. “We’re seeing yields come down for the first time in a while, so stocks are going up,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B.Reily Wealth. The drop in yields is largely a factor of the Federal Reserve’s messaging about slowing the pace of interest rate hikes after its November meeting. Those expectations were sparked by a story published in The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 21 that said policy makers would debate the size of a December rate hike, while comments by San Francisco President Mary Daly on the same day called for the Fed to eventually slow down. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
4.103%
was down 15 basis points at 4.081% based on 3 p.m. figures, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Yields move inversely to prices. From a technical standpoint, market strategists expect the rally in stocks may have more room to run now that the S&P 500 has surmounted strong resistance at the 3,800 level, clearing the way for the large-cap index to rise past 3,900, Hogan said. See: Stocks are having a stellar October. Why the bear-market rally may have more room to run. Corporate earnings in the U.S. have continued to surpass analysts’ diminished expectations, add …