WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After recovering from an early pullback and moving mostly higher early in the session, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back slightly below the unchanged line, although the Dow held on to a strong gain.
The Dow reached its best closing level in over a month, jumping 529.85 points or 1 percent to 52,495.88. The S&P 500 also rose 21.84 points or 0.3 percent to 7,712.57, but the Nasdaq edged down 6.07 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 26,424.82.
The notable advance by the Dow partly reflected a sharp increase by shares of 3M (MMM), with the industrial conglomerate spiking by 6 percent.
3M rallied after the Scotch-tape and Post-it maker reported better than expected third quarter earnings and raised its full-year profit forecast.
Dow components Amgen (AMGN), Merck (MRK) and UnitedHealth (UNH) posted significant gains on the day.
Buying interest was also generated in reaction to a substantial downturn by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures tumbling by 2.5 percent after skyrocketing earlier in the day.
The sharp pullback by crude oil partly reflected a report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed indicating negotiators from Qatar and Pakistan have presented a compromise proposal to end the U.S.-Iran war.
Though the U.S. nor Iran confirmed the report, the agency cited a source stating that a breakthrough to halt the escalation of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran could be announced possibly this week.
However, traders may have been reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of earnings from key tech companies like SpaceX (SPCX), Tesla (TSLA) and Meta (META).
'The mounting concern about the artificial intelligence trade raises the stakes ahead of earnings updates from some of the key participants including SpaceX tonight and Tesla and Meta later this week,' said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Sector News
Pharmaceutical stocks showed a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index up by 2.8 percent to a two-month closing high.
Considerable strength was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent jump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.
Biotechnology, healthcare and airline stocks also saw notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both slumped by 1.3 percent, while South Korea's Kospi plunged by 3.7 percent.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have given back ground after an early advance but remain positive. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, has dipped 2.1 basis points to 5.115 percent after hitting a low of 5.073 percent.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
