Dow Jones and S&P 500 at more than three-month high

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed at more than three-month highs on Tuesday, with the industrial index climbing above 34,000 points, boosted by a rally in retail giants Walmart and Home Depot.

The strong corporate results of the second quarter have helped the market in recent weeks to go on the counterattack after the shocks of the first half that led the indices to bear market territory. The S&P is now up more than 17% from its mid-June lows, although it remains about 10% off its Jan. 3 all-time high.

The stock rally is also fueled by hopes that inflation has hit record highs and the Federal Reserve will now be able to slow its tightening of monetary policy, abandoning the aggressive rate hikes that reached 75 basis points in the past two meetings. her.

Poor economic data from China and a disappointing survey of US East Coast manufacturing released earlier in the week may give the Fed more reason to push ahead with softer interest rate hikes next.

It is noted that on Wednesday the minutes of the last meeting of the Fed will be made public, which are expected to provide new information on the reasoning of the central bank.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones added 239.57 points, or 0.71%, to close at 34,152.01, while the S&P 500 gained 8.06 points, or 0.19%, to close at 4,305.20. The tech Nasdaq lost 25.50 points, or -0.19%, to 13,102.55.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial index, 21 closed with a positive sign and nine with a negative. Walmart was the biggest gainer, up $6.77, or 5.11%, to $139.37, followed by Home Depot, up $327.38, up 4.06%, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, up 2 .36% to $42.04.

Walmart shares jumped after it reported earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, while the retail giant revised upward its full-year guidance.

Home Depot also reported record sales for the second quarter today and reaffirmed its guidance for the full year.

Biggest losers were 3M (-0.77%), Salesforce (-0.77%) and Intel (-0.41%).

The corporate earnings period wraps up in the next few days with announcements from Target Corp. and Lowe’s Cos. on Wednesday and Kohl’s Corp. on Thursday.

By the end of the day, industrial production rose 0.6 percent in July, the Federal Reserve said, beating analysts’ estimates of a 0.3 percent rise in a poll by The Wall Street Journal.

Capacity utilization rebounded to 80.3% in July from 79.9% the previous month, central bank data showed. Analysts had expected it to rebound to 80.2%.

For manufacturing in particular, Fed data showed output rose 0.7% in July after falling in the previous two months. In contrast, output from utilities fell 0.8% in July. Finally, mining production rose 0.7%, completing three consecutive months of strong gains.