By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow gave up some gains after hitting a record high Tuesday, but a rally in energy stocks following a "deep freeze" across parts of the U.S. kept downside momentum in check.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25%, or 78 points, though had gained about 150 points intraday to hit record high of 31,608.63. The S&P 500 was up 0.04%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.25%.
Energy stocks jumped more than 2% as a "deep freeze impacting large portions of the country and supply disruptions sent U.S. crude prices above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year," Stifel said, while natural gas prices jumped 6%.
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), Apache (NASDAQ:APA) and Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) rallied sharply, with the latter up more than 5%.
Financials were also in favor as bank stocks continued to benefit from the melt up in U.S. government bond yields amid falling Covid-19 infections and a step up in vaccinations.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) gained more than 3%, while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) climbed more than 2%.
Higher interest rates are seen as boon for banks, boosting net interest margin – the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to their lenders.
The growing expectations for further round of stimulus that could include $14 billion funding to support the aviation industry, boosted airlines with United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) leading the gains, up more than 3%.
Technology, meanwhile, was roughly flat, paced by weakness in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) jumped to record intraday highs as the stock continued its move higher following stronger-than-expected quarterly results, released earlier this month.
On the earnings front, Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) was in focus as the company reported fourth quarter loss that sent its share price down more 9%. The decline, however, comes after shares of business analytics company jumped more than 200% since its October lows.
In other news, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s plans to acquire chipmaker ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) in a $40 billion deal hit a snag as the The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly looking into deal following protests by ARM's licensees including Google, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Carnival (NYSE:CUK) Corporation (NYSE:CCL), Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL), Cboe Global Markets (NYSE:CBOE) among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG), Allegion (NYSE:ALLE), Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.