Investing.com — The Dow had its best day in more than a year Tuesday, closing at fresh record highs, underpinned by better-than-expected retail sales data and a slew of mostly upbeat quarterly earnings from corporates.
At 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT), rose 742 points, or 1.9%, notching its best day since June 2023, to fresh all-time closing high of 40,954.48. The climbed 0.6% to a record of 5,666.98. The rose 0.2%.
Upside surprise in June retail sales points to stronger consumer
U.S. were unchanged in June on a monthly basis, according to data released earlier Tuesday, following on from an upwardly revised 0.3% gain in May.
This release was stronger than the expected fall of 0.3% expected, after a previously reported 0.1% gain in May, pointing to still strong consumer spending that could likely limited how many rate cuts the Fed delivers.
“Even if the Fed did opt to open the door to rate cuts as early as Q3, the Fed will likely be limited in action, disappointing investors’ hopes of returning to neutral or below sometime soon,” Stifel said in a Tuesday note.
Traders were now looking at a 89% chance the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points in September, with a small chance of a 50-basis-point cut, according to .
Quarterly earnings continue as BofA, Unitedhealth impress
Wall Street banks continued to dominate earnings, with Bank of America (NYSE:) surging 5% after the lender reported second-quarter revenue and profit topping expectations on rising investment banking and asset management fees.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) cut early losses, to close 1% higher following better-than-expected results, but Charles Schwab (NYSE:) fell 10% as brokerage firm said on an earnings call it may pause buybacks to pay down debt and reported net interest margin that fell short of estimates.
Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:), a major dow component, jumped 6% after the health insurance giant reported Q2 results that beat on both the top and bottom line, despite headwinds in its Medicaid business.
Match group attracts activist interest; Reddit slips on Loop downgrade
Match Group (NASDAQ:) stock rose over 7% following a report activist investor Starboard has a stake of more than 6.5% in the Tinder owner and was pushing for a possible sale if a turnaround wasn’t successful.
Reddit Inc (NYSE:) slumped 3% after Loop Capital downgrade its rating on the social media company to hold from buy, citing valuations concerns.
Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ:) stock fell 9%, pulling back after closing up 31% a day earlier amid a broader rally in the so-called Trump trade across markets.
Trump names running mate as shooting boosts presidential odds
Wall Street has largely shrugged off any political uncertainty stemming from an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend..
Trump on Monday was officially nominated as the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential race, and named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
Trump’s chances of a victory were seen increasing sharply after the shooting over the weekend, with a Trump presidency presenting the prospect of a looser regulatory environment in the country.
(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)