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The S&P 500 closed little changed near its record level on Tuesday as investors braced for a big batch of tech earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials eked higher 3.36 points to close the session at 33,984.93
The S&P 500 dipped 0.9 points to 4,186.72, slightly below Monday’s record close.
The NASDAQ Composite declined 48.56 points to 14,090.22, from Monday’s record close.
Shares of Tesla fell 4.5% even after the electric carmaker posted record net income of $438 million. Tesla also beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue expectations handily, boosted by sales of bitcoin and regulatory credits. The shares have struggled this year, off by more than 18% from their record. Though the stock is still up 360% over the last 12 months.
UPS shares soared over 10% after earnings blew past Wall Street estimates. The company said first-quarter revenue was up 27%.
The first-quarter earnings season kicks into high gear on Tuesday with key tech companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft and AMD reporting after the bell.
So far, with about a third of the S&P 500 having reported numbers, 84% of companies have turned in a positive earnings surprise. However, stock moves have been relatively muted following the strong results with the market standing at record levels with high valuations.
GameStop’s stock jumped more than 6% after the video game retailer said it sold 3.5 million additional shares, raising $551 million to speed up the company’s e-commerce transformation.
Apple and Facebook earnings follow on Wednesday after the bell.
The Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is not expected to take any action, but economists expect it to defend its policy to let inflation run hot.
The latest surveys see the central bank staying on hold and keeping its asset buying program in place at the same levels for the rest of 2021, despite growing concerns about an overheating economy.
On the data front, home prices in February registered the biggest gain in 15 years, rising 12% year over year and up from 11.2% in January, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index.
Meanwhile, consumer confidence climbed sharply to hit a pandemic high with The Conference Board’s index jumping to 121.7, the highest since February 2020.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys slumped, raising yields to 1.63% from Monday’s 1.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.30 to $63.21 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $4.30 to $1,775.80 U.S. an ounce.
