By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow remained close to its record intraday high Tuesday, led by a jump in cyclicals including energy and industrials as investors looked ahead to a further economic boost amid progress on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, and had climbed to an all-time intraday high of 4,445,6. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, or 143 points, to remain close its record intraday high of 35,268.53. The Nasdaq was up 0.2%.
The infrastructure bill passed in the Senate 69-30 on Tuesday, and now heads to the House of Representatives for approval, though there is some uncertainty in the House.
Democrats are aiming to advance a much larger, approximately a $3.5 trillion package, without Republican support, alongside a bipartisan infrastructure bill. The more ambitious plan would focus spending on human infrastructure that includes measures to improve health care and education.
Investor optimism over further spending on the economy paved the way for a lift off in economically sensitive sectors of the market including energy and industrials.
Energy stocks led the broader-market gains to the upside as oil prices rebounded from a drumming on Monday.
Still, some continued to caution on oil prices, pointing to the falling China demand as a headwind after a surge in Covid-19 cases led to renewed travel restrictions, stifling demand.
Treasury yields continued to advance, meanwhile, pushing banking stocks higher, with Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) up 2%.
Higher interest rates boost the return on interest that banks earn from their loan products, or net interest margin – the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to depositors.
Rising yields, the enemy of growth stocks with high valuations, continued to weigh on tech.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) were below the flatline, while Apart Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was higher.
On the earnings front, investors cheered mostly positive reports.
AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) reported a narrower than expected quarterly loss late Monday, on better than expected revenue as easing pandemic restrictions boosted demand. Its share price was down 2%. The movie theater also said it will begin to accept cryptocurrency payments at U.S. locations this year.
3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) jumped more than 40% after reporting quarterly beat on the top and bottom lines.
Squarespace (NYSE:SQSP) fell nearly 9% after reporting a wider loss than expected as rising costs offer a 31% jump in revenue.
In other news, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid a slew of harassment allegations, which he continued to deny.