Stocks tick higher on Wall Street, but Treasury yields sink

U.S. stock indexes drifted higher Tuesday as Wall Street’s big rally eased off the accelerator.

The S&P 500 rose 11.90 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,306.51 after flipping between small gains and losses throughout the day. It’s the mildest move for the index in two weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 164.07 points, or 0.6 percent, to 26,828.47, and the Nasdaq composite added 38.37, or 0.4 percent, to close at another record, 10,941.17.

Stock indexes are hanging at or close to their record highs after clawing back all or most of their sell-off from earlier in the year, and the S&P 500 is within 2.4 percent of its all-time high set in February. But caution is still very prevalent across other markets: Gold rose to another record Tuesday, while Treasury yields sank as investors sought safety.

Within the stock market, energy companies had the biggest gains after the price of oil rose. But two in five S&P 500 stocks were lower following a mixed set of earnings reports.

On the winning end was TakeTwo Interactive Software, which rose 5.9 percent. The video-game maker reported a profit for the spring that was almost double year-ago levels as customers stuck at home played Grand Theft Auto and other games instead of going outside.

It also raised its sales forecast for its fiscal year, a notable move when many companies have been shy to give any kind of prediction given all the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic.

A weekly $600 in federal unemployment benefits has expired, threatening to crunch the finances of millions of out-of-work Americans. Recent data reports have shown an uptick in the number of workers filing for unemployment benefits after a resurgence of coronavirus counts pushed some states to reimpose restrictions on businesses. Economists expect a report on Friday to show that U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs last month, which would be welcome growth but also a slowdown from June.

The Federal Reserve said last week that it will keep interest rates at their record low levels, as it continues to pump massive amounts of aid into the economy. Now, investors are waiting for Congress to do the same.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 0.50 percent from 0.56 percent late Monday.