Apple leads the technology sector higher
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks clawed back early losses Tuesday as Apple led a rally in technology companies. Smaller, more domestically focused companies also climbed. The late push offset a slump in household goods makers and industrial companies.
Stocks fell in the early going as investors focused on trade tensions, a drop in construction and weaker growth in manufacturing.
Steelmakers lost ground after the White House said it would delay its decision to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico for 30 days.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell as much as 354 points, then recovered much of that loss and closed down 64.
Amazon and other retailers rose, while banks and health care companies wiped out early losses to finish slightly higher.
Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, said that even though companies are reporting great first-quarter results, the market isn't reacting very much. He thinks some people don't want to invest because the market has gone through such huge swings over the last three months.
“It's been the best earnings season we've had in 10 years,” he said. “People are starting to sit out. And part of the reason they're sitting out is we're having such high volatility.”
U.S. manufacturing kept growing in April, but it did so at a slower pace, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers.
Many factories said shortages of workers and skills affected their productivity.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said construction spending fell in March as homebuilding dropped sharply.
Apple climbed 2.3 percent to $169.10 in regular trading. Its stock rose 4 percent in aftermarket trading after the company's fiscal second quarter profit surpassed Wall Street's expectations, as did its sales forecast for the current quarter. Apple’s profit rose 25 percent to $13.82 billion.
The company also raised its dividend and said it will buy back $100 billion in stock. The iPhone maker is raising its quarterly dividend by 16 percent to 73 cents per share, matching the largest increase since Apple restored the payment under shareholder pressure six years ago. Raising the dividend by 10 cents per share will cost Apple an additional $2 billion annually, based on its current outstanding stock.
Apple, the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, has lagged behind peers like Microsoft and Intel as investors worried about the possibility of slowing iPhone sales. Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones in the fiscal second quarter, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier.