Banks, technology lead stocks higher

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks climbed for the fourth straight day Tuesday as strong earnings continued to pull the market closer to the all-time high it set in late January.

Industrial companies rose Tuesday and banks moved higher as interest rates increased. Gains for Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet helped tech companies.

Companies including Hertz, Etsy and Mosaic climbed after results surpassed investors’ forecasts. Tesla surged after CEO Elon Musk said he might take the company private.

Gina Martin Adams, chief equity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, said companies are reporting huge profit and revenue growth. That’s nudged concerns about trade tensions with China, Europe, Canada and Mexico out of investors’ minds.

“Very strong top line and bottom line growth from the vast majority of companies overwhelmed any fears that started to bubble up in June,” she said. She added that the tariffs that the U.S. and its trading partners have announced recently are still small and haven’t affected the broader market very much.

The S&P 500 index rose 8.05 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,858.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 126.73 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,628.91. The Nasdaq composite gained 23.99 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,883.66. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks edged up 3.99 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,688.30.

The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high Jan. 26. After that, it dropped 10 percent in nine days as investors worried about signs that inflation was accelerating. That hasn’t materialized, but trade fears have weighed on the market since then.

Rental car company Hertz soared 24.6 percent to $19.53, its biggest gain in almost a decade. But even with that huge gain, the stock is still down 12 percent for the year.

A little more than four years ago, Hertz stock traded above $120 a share. It plunged as the company dealt with overcapacity in the rental car market and the value of its vehicles decreased. Hertz has changed CEOs twice in four years.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.98 percent from 2.95 percent. Banks and financial companies also climbed as interest rates rose.

Tesla stock climbed after the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had invested in the company. It soared further after Mr. Musk tweeted that he might take the electric car maker private.