Wall Street stocks open higher, expected to close June strong despite geopolitical challenges posed by war
US stocks have opened higher as investors appeared to shrug off the Iran conflict and looked towards upcoming earnings results.
Wall Street’s main indices are on course to close June with their strongest quarterly gains in years, highlighting the resilience of equities despite geopolitical challenges.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indices were set for their best quarter in six years while the blue-chip Dow was on track for its biggest quarterly gain since 2022.
“Investors can’t see an end in sight to this bull run. Whenever there’s a bit of a sell-off, we seem to be in a situation where you get a fresh impetus to buy,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.In early trading on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.72 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 52,186.46, the S&P 500 gained 24.96 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 7,465.39 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 191.73 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 26,011.87.
Recent weakness in heavyweight technology shares, however, has left the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite on track to snap two-month winning streaks in June.
The Dow Jones, meanwhile, has fared better and is poised for a third consecutive month of gains.
Some analysts are pinning their hopes on the upcoming earnings season to boost stocks, especially after last week’s punishing sell-off in semi-conductors and tech shares.
“Technology has been experiencing a period of June gloom but that could easily reverse as earnings season approaches,” said Brian Levitt, chief global market strategist at Invesco.
Others warn that any meaningful gain in the second half of the year will need a breakthrough in the negotiations to end the US-Iran conflict.
Traders are pricing in at least one rate hike by the Federal Reserve by the end of 2026, according to data compiled by LSEG - a far cry from expectations of easing rates earlier this year.
They are parsing through the latest job openings and consumer confidence data, and will also watch Fed chair Kevin Warsh’s comments at a high-profile economic conference in Portugal later on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 real estate index dropped 1.7 per cent, the most among individual sectors on the benchmark.
Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were in the red.
Shares of Concentrix dropped 20.7 per cent to hit a record low after the customer experience firm lowered its forecasts for annual revenue and adjusted profit.
AeroVironment soared 22 per cent following a jump in quarterly revenue.
Morgan Stanley shares dipped 1.0 per cent after brokerage Oppenheimer downgraded major Wall Street investment banks, recommending that investors redeploy capital into alternative asset managers.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.29-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
Neither the S&P 500 nor the Nasdaq Composite posted any new 52-week highs or lows.
