Stocks close mixed, ending streak for S&P
The major U.S. stock indexes capped a listless day of trading Tuesday with an uneven finish that snapped a six-day winning streak for the S&P 500 even as the Nasdaq set another all-time high.
A late fade pulled the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent, just below its record high set a day earlier. The benchmark index closed with a nearly even split between gainers and losers. A mix of companies that deal with consumer services and products were the biggest drag on the broader market, outweighing gains in communications, industrial and health care stocks.
A slight pullback after six straight days of gains is not uncommon, as investors pause during a rally to reassess and wait for more economic data to see where the market goes next.
Investors continued to monitor the action in Washington, where it appears Democrats plan to move ahead without Republican help on a major stimulus bill for the economy.
“It seems like fiscal stimulus will pass through reconciliation and the result will be one that is larger than was thought probably two or three weeks ago,“said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.
The S&P 500 index slipped 4.36 points to 3,911.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 9.93 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 31,375.83. The Nasdaq rose 20.06 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,007.70, its fourth straight gain. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks rose 9.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,299. The four indexes set all-time highs on Monday.
The market’s strong start to February and the strength in shares of companies that rely on consumer spending “is an indicator of the optimism creeping higher and the assumption that consumers in the U.S. will get a larger check perhaps than we thought three or four weeks ago,” Buchanan said.
Several companies made big moves after reporting their latest quarterly results Tuesday. Hanesbrands soared 24.9 percent for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting earnings that came in well ahead of what analysts were expecting.
Mobile games developer Glu Mobile vaulted 34.9 percent after it agreed to be acquired by Electronic Arts in a deal valued at $2.1 billion. Shares in Electronic Arts, maker of “Medal of Honor” and other video games, rose 2.6 percent.
Shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment continue to be volatile, as online investors remain in a tug-of-war with Wall Street institutional investors over the struggling companies’ values. GameStop shares fell 16.1 percent and AMC lost 11 percent.
Traders in cryptocurrencies continued to push up the price of bitcoin. It rose 7.3 percent to $47,184, according to the tracking site CoinDesk. Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange climbed 6.6 percent to $47,700.
Mary Wilson, a founding member of the Supremes, the trailblazing vocal group that had a dozen No. 1 singles on the pop charts in the 1960s and was a key to the success of Motown Records, died Monday at her home in Henderson, Nev. She was 76.
The death was confirmed by her publicist, Jay Schwartz. No cause was given.
Formed in Detroit as the Primettes in 1959, the Supremes, whose other two original members were Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, made their mark with hits like “Baby Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love” whose smooth blend of R&B and pop helped define the Motown sound.
Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, said in a statement that the Supremes had opened doors for other Motown acts.
“I was always proud of Mary,” he said. “She was quite a star in her own right, and over the years continued to work hard to boost the legacy of the Supremes.”
She was the only original member still with the Supremes when the group broke up in 1977.
Wilson was born March 6, 1944, in Greenville, Miss., to Sam and Johnnie Mae Wilson. She grew up in the Brewster-Douglass Projects in Detroit and began singing as a child. When Milton Jenkins, who in 1959 was the manager of the Primes, a male singing group (two of whose members would later be in the original lineup of the Temptations), decided to form a female version of the act, the original members were Betty McGlown, Ballard, Wilson and Ross.
To get Gordy’s attention, the group, then known as the Primettes, frequented Motown’s Hitsville USA recording studio after school. They were eventually signed, changed their name to the Supremes and became a trio in 1962.
The Supremes did not fare well early in their career, but they achieved success after they began working with the songwriting and producing team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland — and after Gordy made Ross the lead singer. (Before then, Wilson and Ballard had shared most of the lead vocals.)
The trio’s breakthrough single was “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard pop chart in 1963. Five consecutive No. 1 singles, all with Ross as the lead singer, followed in rapid succession in 1964 and 1965: “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Back in My Arms Again.”
The Supremes emerged as stars during an era of tension and upheaval in the United States: 1963, the year of their first hit, was also the year of the March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. famously spoke, and the year that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. If the nation was seemingly divided, the Supremes nonetheless found fans everywhere.
“They were extraordinarily popular with white audiences, Black audiences and everyone else,” said Dolores Barclay, an author and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, who collaborated with Ross on a memoir, “Secrets of a Sparrow” (1993).
“Appearing in white venues was breaking down racial barriers,” Barclay said. “But it’s a different type of disruption. It’s nonconfrontational. It’s having a platform and saying, ‘Yes, we’re here, we’re great, and we’re a part of American music.’”
The Supremes “transcend adolescence without repudiating it,” an article in The New York Times said in 1967, adding, “Their audience spans ages and taste barriers.”
By that year, the group had undergone another change: Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong, and the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes. Ross left the group for a solo career in 1970 and was replaced as lead singer by Jean Terrell, leaving Wilson as the last remaining original member. The group went on to score several more hits, including “Up the Ladder to the Roof ” and “Stoned Love.”
The Supremes were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
The Supremes broke up in 1977. Wilson released the album “Mary Wilson” in 1979 (it met with limited success) and had begun working on a second album when she was dropped by Motown in 1980. She did not release another album until “Walk the Line” in 1992, but she maintained a busy career as a singer.
Reviewing a cabaret performance in 2009, Stephen Holden of The Times praised her “sizable voice with its rough Tina Turner-like edges” and noted that, despite its emphasis on the Supremes’ catalog, her performance “suggested that Ms. Wilson would really like to get away from all that history to be a grander, more grown-up pop diva.”
For all the Supremes’ success, Wilson acknowledged in her 1986 autobiography, “Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme,” that there had been friction in the group during Ross’ tenure. (The book took its name from the 1981 Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” later made into a movie, which was widely regarded as being based on the Supremes’ history. Wilson was quoted as saying she liked the musical; Ross claimed not to have seen it.)
“Diane always liked to be the center of attraction,” Wilson told People magazine in 1986, using Ross’ original first name. “If you happened to be in her way while she was going toward the center, that was your fault.”
The strains in their relationship appeared in public again in 2000, when Wilson and Birdsong did not join a Supremes reunion tour, saying they had been offered much less payment than Ross. For the tour — which did not do well and was canceled midway through its scheduled 29 dates — Ross was joined by Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, who had joined the Supremes after she left.
“My biggest desire and dream is that Diane and I are together again,” Wilson said on CBS that year. “First of all, it’s a friendship thing for me.”
Ross said on Twitter on Tuesday that she had “wonderful” memories of her time with Wilson and that “the Supremes will live on in our hearts.”
Wilson is survived her daughter, Turkessa; her sons, Pedro Antonio Jr. and William; her sister, Kathryn; her brother, Roosevelt; 10 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Her marriage to Pedro Ferrer ended in divorce.
She remained in the spotlight in recent years. In 2019 she competed on “Dancing With the Stars” and released the book “Supreme Glamour,” a collection of pictures of the Supremes’ most dazzling gowns.