Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Tuesday, pushing further into record territory, as investors celebrated blue-chip results and looked passed a weaker-than-expected reading of business activity.
At 11:40AM ET (16:40GMT), the Dow Jones gained 67 points, or 0.32%, the S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.35%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 13 points, or 0.22%.
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) led the Dow higher with gains of nearly 4% despite missing consensus on revenue. The world's largest retailer found support on a 1.8% increase in comparable sales, beating expectations for a 1.3% rise, in what was its 10th consecutive quarter of growth.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) rose around 1% on Tuesday after the blue-chip home improvement retailer delivered better than expected top and bottom line numbers after a 5.8% increase in comparable sales.
Outside the Dow, Macy’s (NYSE:M) gained nearly 2% after the department store chain reported better-than-expected profit, despite yet another disappointing fall in revenues.
In M&A activity, shares of Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) jumped 5% as the asset manager was reported to have received a takeover offer, according to a source cited by TheStreet.
Shares in Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) sank more than 3% in its first day of trade after backing out of its bid for the Anglo-Dutch Unilever (LON:ULVR).
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) reached a deal of its acquisition of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) to close the agreement with a $350 million discount to the original offer price as the two firms came to terms over recent security breaches.
On the economic front, business activity in the U.S. private sector slowed its expansion in February, falling from 14-month high, as both the flash services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) and the flash manufacturing PMI unexpectedly fell.
Initially, the data pared some of the gains in the US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, but increased hopes for policy tightening from the Federal Reserve (Fed) supported the greenback.
Dollar strength was largely attributed to comments from Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker and Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester that pointed to the potential for U.S. interest rates to rise next month.
However, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari, one of the more dovish voting officials, repeated Tuesday that he still saw slack in the labor market and reminded an audience that the core PCE inflation gauge was still only at 1.7%, suggesting that the central bank could still hold on policy tightening at the next meeting.
Markets put the odds for a rate hike in March at only about 22%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley, who believe the Fed won’t make their first move until September, suggested that there were only three key events between now and the March meeting for the central bank to give a clear signal on a hike, with the release of the Fed minutes on Wednesday being one of those opportunities.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher as OPEC secretary general Mohammed Barkindo delivered bullish comments on the progress among major oil producers to reduce the global supply glut.
Speaking at the International Petroleum Week conference in London, Barkindo estimated that OPEC member states are at more than 90% compliance with a global pact to cut production and noted the willingness of non-OPEC members to comply with the deal.
He expressed confidence in a higher level of compliance in the coming months from both OPEC and non-OPEC producers.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.75% to $54.72 by 11:42AM ET (16:42GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.35% to $56.94.