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Two of Wall Street’s main stock indexes got pummeled Tuesday, as concerns about the rising number of coronavirus cases dented investor sentiment once again.
The Dow Jones Industrials dumped 222.19 points to 27,463.19, after a 650-point loss Monday, its biggest one-day drop since Sept. 3. Caterpillar and Boeing were the biggest laggards in the Dow, Caterpillar falling 3.2% and Boeing losing 3.5%.
The S&P 500 doffed 10.29 points to 3,390.68, marking its first close below 3,400 since Oct. 6.
The NASDAQ recovered 72.41 points to 11,431.35, as tech shares gained broadly.
Traders increased positions in names that benefit from people staying at home and trimmed holdings in stocks dependent on the economy reopening. Online retailers Shopify and Amazon rose 4.3% and 2.5%, respectively. Zoom Video gained 4.1%. Microsoft advanced 1.5%.
Meanwhile, American Airlines dropped 4.8% while United and Delta both slid more than 3%.
A slew of large-cap companies reported quarterly earnings on Tuesday, including Dow components 3M and Caterpillar. Caterpillar reported a steep drop in year-over-year earnings and 3M slid 3.1% even after posting stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue.
Wall Street was also gearing up for Microsoft earnings after the bell on Tuesday. The technology giant saw revenue grow 13% during the second quarter despite the pandemic.
Nearly 170 S&P 500 companies had reported third-quarter earnings through Tuesday morning, according to data from The Earnings Scout.
Of those companies, 83% have posted better-than-expected earnings, the data showed. However, some investors think these results do not reflect a broad recovery in Corporate America.
AMD said it was buying rival Xilinx in a $35-billion all-stock deal in a push for the data center market. Xilinx gained 8.6% on the news. AMD shares dipped 4.7%.
Friday and Saturday saw cases spike above 83,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The data on Sunday also showed the country has reported a record average of 69, 767 cases per day over the past seven days.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 0.78% from Monday’s 0.80%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 89 cents at $39.45 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $3.30 to $1,909.00
