What’s happening: US stocks traded mostly higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closing at record levels.
What happened: Various stock markets around the world, mainly in China and Japan, are still a long way from their all-time highs.
Despite various concerns around rising infections, delays in the government’s relief package and re-imposition of restrictions, major US stock indices surged to their peaks on Tuesday.
Why it matters: There seems to be no stopping the rise in Wall Street stocks. Despite the US facing multiple concerns, being the hotspot of covid-19 infections and deaths, the country’s major indices hit all-time highs on Tuesday.
China’s major index, the Shanghai Composite is down more than 40% from its peak level seen in 2007, while the stock markets in Japan have also lost ground amid the pandemic, trading around 40% lower than the record highs witnessed way back in 1989.
Meanwhile, US stocks were driven yesterday by some strong earnings reports released by major companies. Both Walmart and Home Depot reported better-than-expected results for the latest quarter. Shares of Oracle closed higher by more than 2%, after news of the company being in talks to acquire TikTok’s US business. Tesla’s stock notched a fifth consecutive day of gain, closing higher by around 3%.
In economic data, US housing starts climbed 22.6% in July, while building permits surged 18.8% from June’s levels.
The S&P 500 index, which tracks several of the country’s biggest companies, rose 0.2% to close at 3,389.78 on Tuesday, reaching its first record high closing since February 19. Despite concerns over political chaos in the US, a delay in the new fiscal stimulus and the state of the economy, the S&P 500 index has made the fastest turnaround from the bear-market zone.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed around 82 points to close at 11,210.84, reaching its 34th all-time high for the year. The Dow Jones index declined, however, by 0.2% to settle at 27,778.07, following a 0.3% decline on Monday.
What to watch: Investors await the release of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes from the latest meeting, which are expected to provide details of the strategies suggested by the Federal Reserve to help the country’s economy recover from the coronavirus-led crisis.
Markets will continue to monitor the covid-19 numbers, with total cases in the US surpassing 5.4 million.