U.S. Stocks Fluctuate But Close At New Record Highs

(RTTNews) - Stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday but largely maintained a positive bias and ended the day mostly higher. The major averages added to the strong gains posted during Monday's session, once again reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages pulled back off their highs in late-day trading but still closed in positive territory. The Nasdaq advanced 190.04 points or 0.8 percent to 23,827.49, the Dow climbed 161.78 points or 0.3 percent to 47,706.37 and the S&P 500 rose 15.73 points or 0.2 percent to 6,890.89.

The strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which led to the rally on Monday amid optimism about a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China.

News of a rare metals deal between the U.S. and Japan may have increased confidence ahead of President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week.

However, traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting comments for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 90.8 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by another quarter point in December, but the views about the chances of further rate cuts in early 2026 are more mixed.

Traders are also looking ahead to the release of earnings news from a number of big-name tech companies, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSGFT) and Amazon (AMZN) due to report their quarterly results in the coming days.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest deterioration by consumer confidence in the month of October.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 94.6 in October from an upwardly revised 95.6 in September.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to slip to 93.4 from the 94.2 originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Networking stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the session, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 1.6 percent to a record closing high.

Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index.

On the other hand, airline stocks moved sharply lower on the day, resulting in a 4.1 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

Commercial real estate, utilities and oil stocks also saw considerable weakness, limiting the upside for the broader markets.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.6 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest strength after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.4 basis points at 3.983 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Wednesday is likely to be driven by reaction to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement and its impact on the outlook for interest rates.