Tuesday's early trade: S&P set for worst first quarter since 1938

Wall Street steadied on Tuesday as investors returned to stocks that are likely to weather an economic slump due to the coronavirus pandemic that has put the S&P 500 on course for its worst first quarter since 1938.
Technology firms, which have been resilient amid a broader selloff that has erased more than $5 trillion from the value of S&P 500 firms, were the biggest boost to the index.
Real estate stocks, utilities and consumer staples, on the other hand, led declines following a recent rally, partly as traders rebalanced their portfolios at the end of the quarter.
"Stocks have been on a wild ride ... (and) not surprisingly, investors are split on whether to lean in to or fade the current rally," said Jonathan Golub, chief US equity strategist at Credit Suisse Securities in New York.
An unprecedented round of fiscal and monetary stimulus had helped equity markets stabilize last week following wild swings in the past month that saw the benchmark S&P 500 rise 9% and slump 12% in two consecutive sessions.
Sliding from the record highs of mid February, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes are now set to end the quarter more than 18% lower from the start of the year. The blue-chip Dow is on course for its biggest quarterly percentage decline since 1987, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is set for its worst three months since 2018.
On Tuesday, Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple, Netflix Inc and Google-parent Alphabet Inc - known as the FAANG group of stocks - rose 1% to 2.6%, helping the Nasdaq outperform broader gains.
At 11:18 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 68.97 points, or 0.31%, at 22,396.45, the S&P 500 was up 5.59 points, or 0.21%, at 2,632.24 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 70.32 points, or 0.90%, at 7,844.47.