By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Nasdaq moved above a record milestone Tuesday, as technology stocks continued to rack up gains amid a backdrop of falling Covid-19 cases and further progress on fiscal stimulus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13%, or 41 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.05%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.31%.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) led the gains in broader tech sector, up 4% as Wall Street talked up the social media company's earnings due Tuesday after the markets close. "We expect [Twitter's] Q4 results to beat consensus estimates for revenue driven by a second consecutive quarter of higher advertiser demand and audience monetization," Wedbush said in a note.
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) rose 3% after the company announced a deal to buy Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) for $2.4 billion. The merger is expected to ramp-up EA's mobile business and diversifies its range of the mobile games.
DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) was also among the biggest gainers, up more 2% ahead of its earnings slated for Feb. 17.
Sentiment on stocks was also supported by an ongoing decline in U.S. virus cases and a pick up the pace of the vaccine rollouts that will likely lead to a stronger-than-expected reopening.
The U.S. reported fewer than 100,000 new cases for the second straight day Monday and hospitalizations continued to fall. The Biden administration is set to boost the supply of vaccines sent directly to states by 5% over the next week as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) increase production.
Energy stocks, however, came under pressure following a decline in oil majors Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) and oilfield services provider TechnipFMC (NYSE:FTI).
TechnipFMC PLC (NYSE:FTI) fell 7% ahead of the its removal from the S&P 500.
On the stimulus, President Joe Biden told and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with chief executives of a several blue chip business including Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) to discuss his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.
The three major averages closed at record highs on Monday and market participants continued make bullish calls, citing a boost from continued high levels of liquidity.
"So while we remain on guard for elevated volatility to strike at some point in the weeks ahead, we believe investors should stay the course on the road to S&P 4,000," Janney Montgomery Scott said in a note.
In other news, Simon Property (NYSE:SPG) jumped more than 3% after the mall operator delivered an upbeat outlook for 2021, forecasting a recovery in retail tenants as well as an improvement in rent collection rates.