Financial and industrial stocks boost S&P 500 to record high
The S&P 500 hit a record intraday high on Tuesday, led by gains in financial and industrial stocks after Irma weakened to a tropical depression. But declines in McDonald’s and technology stocks weighed on the Dow and Nasdaq.
Irma, which had rampaged through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes, weakened to a tropical depression, allaying concerns about the severity of its financial impact.
Investors also seemed to shrug off North Korea’s rejection of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and the country’s traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.
“There’s a relief factor, at least for the moment, that North Korea situation has gone a little bit quiet and the fact that the hurricane over the weekend was not as bad as expected,” said Dave Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management.
Instead, he said investors seemed to take some cheer from US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s comments that he was hopeful of a tax reform by the end of 2017, with a “competitive” rate for businesses even if not at the 15% rate backed by President Donald Trump.
“The other thing I’d point to is you’ve gone from extreme pessimism about any kind of fiscal stimulus package to more coming around to the idea that maybe something will happen late this year or early next year,” Donabedian said.
In late-morning trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 42.9 points, or 0.19%, to 22,100.27, the S&P 500 was up 3.36 points, or 0.14%, to 2,491.47, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.38 points, or 0.05%, to 6,435.64.
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1% rise in the telecom services index.
Financials rose more than 1%, with the six major banks up between 1.2% and 2.5%.
Apple’s shares were flat ahead of the expected launch the 10th-anniversary edition of the iPhone, whose sales will also have repercussions on its rivals and many suppliers.
McDonald’s shares fell more than 3% on a report that a research firm had raised concerns about the restaurant chain’s third-quarter sales.
DowDuPont rose 1.77% after the company said it was making changes to a plan of splitting itself into three.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,654 to 1,030. On the Nasdaq, 1,610 issues rose and 1,099 fell.