By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
(Reuters) – The S&P 500 hit a record high for the fourth straight session on Tuesday, helped by shares of heavyweight technology firms and Morgan Stanley, while an upbeat consumer confidence report set a positive tone for key jobs data at the end of the week.
U.S. consumer confidence increased in June to its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic started more than a year ago, bolstering expectations for strong economic growth in the second quarter.
Market participants are closely watching the nonfarm payroll report on Friday, that could pave way for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy stance which hinges on an equitable recovery of the labor market.
“The economy is booming, the stock market is climbing so it makes perfect sense to me that consumer confidence numbers are through the roof,” said Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest Volatility Management in New York.
“If there’s a strong nonfarm payrolls number this month and we start making progress on the unemployment rate, that changes the whole Fed narrative.”
Five of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with technology and consumer discretionary among the top gainers.
Morgan Stanley jumped 3.7% after it doubled its dividend to 70 cents per share in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group also raised their payouts.
All the three major Wall Street indexes are set for their fifth straight quarter of gains, boosted by ultra-loose monetary policy, a rebounding U.S. economy and robust corporate earnings.
With the S&P 500 climbing nearly 14% in the first half of the year, focus will shift to the second-quarter earnings season, beginning in July, which could decide the path for the next leg of the equity markets. At 13:10 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 47.41 points, or 0.14%, at 34,330.68, the S&P 500 was up 4.65 points, or 0.11%, at 4,295.26. The Nasdaq Composite was up 26.57 points, or 0.18%, at 14,527.08, hitting an all-time high for the sixth consecutive session.
Moderna Inc jumped 6.0% to a record high after the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine showed promise against the Delta variant first identified in India in a lab study, with a modest decrease in response compared to the original strain.
Textron rose 1.1% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the business jet maker’s stock to “overweight” from “equal weight on hopes of a stronger recovery.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.30-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 35 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 81 new highs and 30 new lows.
(Graphic: S&P 500, Nasdaq at record highs; Dow lags, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/yzdvxlrekvx/MicrosoftTeams-image%20(2).png)
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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