Stocks tick higher but Treasury yields sink

Rally tempered by virus-related caution.

NEW YORK — 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%, 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%, to 26,828.47, and the Nasdaq composite added 38.37, or 0.4%, 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% 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%. 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.

On the opposite end was insurer American International Group. AIG fell 7.5% for one of the larger losses in the S&P 500 even though it reported stronger results for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected. Some analysts cited several unusual items that clouded its report, such as COVID-related losses, which make it difficult to extrapolate how AIG’s profits will run from here.