NEW YORK: The S&P 500 touched a record high and extended gains to a fifth session on Tuesday, as investors sifted through a slew of earnings, while a Medicare Advantage payment proposal from the Trump administration sent health insurers sharply lower.
The S&P 500 now hovers about 15 points shy of the 7,000 milestone - a mark that analysts have pegged as a potential pocket of technical resistance.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq touched a near three-month high as earnings took center-stage.
Bellwether United Parcel Service projected higher revenue for 2026, and rose 4.8 percent. Peer FedEx added 3 percent.
Results from parcel carriers are often used as a key barometer to gauge US economic health.
Boeing swung to a fourth-quarter profit, and gained 1 percent, while General Motors advanced 9.2 percent after reporting higher fourth-quarter core profit.
In airlines, American Airlines fell 3.6 percent despite issuing a 2026 profit forecast that topped estimates. JetBlue fell 6 percent on a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.
Airlines are contending with mass cancellations triggered by severe winter weather across the US East Coast.
The Dow fell behind, pressured by an 18.7 percent drop in UnitedHealth after the Trump administration floated only a modest increase in Medicare insurer payment rates.
The proposal clouded over the insurer’s forecast for 2026 adjusted profit, which was above analysts’ expectations. Peers Humana and CVS fell 19.6 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively.
At 11:31 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 310.30 points, or 0.63 percent, to 49,102.10, the S&P 500 gained 36.37 points, or 0.52 percent, to 6,986.60 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 238.19 points, or 1.01 percent, to 23,839.55.
Most tech stocks extended Monday’s gains, with Apple and Broadcom up 2 percent each, while Nvidia and Microsoft gained 1.8 percent each. Amazon added over 1 percent.
Meta, Microsoft and Tesla report earnings on Wednesday, kicking off results from the so-called “Magnificent Seven”, which will test the AI trade that has underpinned Wall Street’s rally for much of the past year.
In total, 102 S&P 500 companies are set to post earnings results this week. Of the 64 that had reported as of Friday, 79.7 percent have topped analyst expectations, as per data compiled by LSEG.
The broader info-tech sector rose 1.8 percent as Corning jumped 15 percent to its highest since 2000. The
Gorilla Glass maker signed a deal with Meta worth up to USD6 billion for fiber-optic cables in AI data centers.
The Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with investors broadly expecting the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged.
Attention will be on policymakers’ guidance, with traders alert to any signals around the Fed’s leadership outlook.
“We’re looking at who the dissenters might be from a voting perspective which will give insights to see how much consensus there is among members around the state of the economy,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz investment management.
Meanwhile, US consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in January, slumping to its lowest level since 2014.
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