Wall Street, which had reopened stable, opted for the upside in the second half of the session: absolute records followed one another inexorably.
The S&P-500 (+0.3%) set a 3rd consecutive closing record at 4.864, in the wake of the $750 billion-plus capitalization titans, which gained +0.7% on average)
Note that 80% of the performance since January 1st is based on 3 stocks, 100% on 12 other performers, which means that 485 S&P stocks out of 500 are neither participating in the rise nor in the recent records.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.43% to 15.426 and the Nasdaq set a 4th record in a row at 17,404... and what's remarkable is that, unlike Monday, the index closed at a high, as if bullish momentum were regaining strength, now that investors have mourned a rate cut in March and are now hoping for it in early May.
The Nasdaq was supported by the inevitable semiconductor manufacturers (SOXX gained 0.65%, new record at 607, +8.5% in 4 sessions) with NXP +2.3%, On-Semiconducteurs +2.1%... and Nvidia, which clawed back 0.4% to set a new closing record at $498.7.

The Dow Jones index once again stood out from the crowd - as it had the day before - dropping 0.25% to 37,905, in the wake of 3M, which fell more than 11% after reporting a disappointing outlook for 2024, against a backdrop of slowing demand, and Home Depot, down 1.7%.
Heavy profit-taking by homebuilders DR Horton (-9.2%), Beazer Homes (-5.6%), Pulte Group and Lennar (-5%): the sector has come to an abrupt halt after an exceptional year in 2023

Conversely, Verizon and Procter & Gamble were welcomed by investors, with respective gains of +6.7% and 4.2%.
Halliburton, which also published on Tuesday, gained +2.5%.

After the close, Intuitive Surgical beat estimates by a very narrow margin in terms of earnings ($1.93 vs. $1.89 expected), but sales surprised with a clear rebound linked to demand for its non-invasive surgery robots (many operations postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic were rescheduled for 2023).

The stock gained over 7% in the after-hours.

On Wednesday, the most eagerly awaited quarterly reports will be those of Testa and IBM.

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