U.S. stock indexes edge up as oil gives up half of its spurt

NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes ticked closer to record heights on Tuesday, but the modest moves belied plenty of churning underneath.

Oil prices and energy stocks slumped to give back nearly half of their huge gains from a day earlier. Rising prices for technology stocks and companies that sell to consumers, though, more than made up for those losses. Treasury yields fell a second straight day as the Federal Reserve opened a two-day meeting on interest rates, where investors expect it to announce a cut for the second time in as many months.

The S&P 500 rose 7.74 points, or 0.3%, to 3,005.70. It’s back to within 0.7% of its record set in late July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33.98, or 0.1%, to 27,110.80, and the Nasdaq composite gained 32.47, or 0.4%, to 8,186.02.

“We’re drifting here a little bit,” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial. “It’s interesting to me, and somewhat encouraging, that the market has held up near its all-time highs despite all these concerns.”

The newest of those concerns arrived this past weekend, when an attack on a Saudi Arabian oil facility raised the risk of major disruptions to the world’s oil supply. Crude surged more than 14% on Monday, about as much as it did when Iraq invaded Kuwait before the 1991 Gulf War, and concern rose that spiraling oil prices would act as a huge, de facto tax imposed around the world.

But benchmark U.S. crude slumped $3.56 to $59.34 per barrel Tuesday, giving up close to half of its surge from a day earlier. Saudi Arabia’s

energy minister said that half of the production cut by the attack has already been restored. Brent crude, the international standard, fell $4.47 to $64.55.

That led to a 1.5% loss for energy stocks in the S&P 500, the sharpest among the 11 sectors that make up the index. Marathon Oil dropped 7.8%, and oilfield services provider Halliburton gave up 6.5%.

The drop in oil, though, helped companies carrying big fuel bills recoup some of their sharp losses from the day before. American Airlines Group rose 3.1%, for example, and clawed back about 40% of its loss from Monday.

Technology stocks also made modest gains, including Microsoft’s 0.8% rise and Micron Technology’s 1.4% climb.

Stocks that pay big dividends, including utilities and real-estate investment trusts, were among the market’s leaders as a drop in interest rates made their payouts more attractive.

Investors still largely expect the Fed to cut short-term interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point Wednesday.