Nasdaq Reaches New Record Closing High But Dow Moves Lower

(RTTNews) - The major U.S. stock indexes all moved higher during trading on Monday but returned to the mixed performance seen to close out the previous week on Tuesday.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a notable advance to reach a new record closing high, the Dow closed lower for the sixth time in the past seven sessions.

The Nasdaq climbed 145.56 points or 0.8 percent to 18,712.75, extending its winning streak to four days. The S&P 500 also rose 9.40 points or 0.2 percent to 5,832.92, but the Dow fell 154.52 points or 0.4 percent to 42,233.05.

The climb by the Nasdaq came ahead of the release of earnings news from big-name tech companies, with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) among the companies reporting their quarterly results after the close of today's trading.

Tech giants Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) are also due to release their quarterly results in the coming days.

Semiconductor stocks showed a particularly strong move to the upside, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.3 percent.

Significant strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Gold and software stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while airline stocks moved sharply lower, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 3.6 percent.

Shares of JetBlue (JBLU) plummeted after the airline reported better than expected third quarter results but forecast a decrease in fourth quarter revenue.

Housing stocks also saw substantial weakness, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index plunging by 2.3 percent.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI) posted a steep loss after reporting fiscal fourth quarter results that missed estimates and providing disappointing guidance.

The decrease by the Dow came amid significant losses by Home Depot (HD), Coca-Cola (KO) and Travelers (TRV).

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

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index surged to 108.7 in October after tumbling to a revised 99.2 in September.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to inch up to 99.1 from the 98.7 originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed job openings in the U.S. fell to 7.44 million in September from a downwardly revised 7.86 million in August.

Economists had expected job openings to edge down to 7.99 million from the 8.04 million originally reported for the previous month.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.8 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.3, although China's Shanghai Composite Index bucked the uptrend and slumped by 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries recovered from early weakness to end the day roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.274 percent after hitting a three-month intraday high of 4.339 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to the latest earnings news as well as reports on private sector employment, third quarter GDP and pending home sales.