LONDON: U.S. stocks ended Tuesday’s choppy session slightly higher, though modest gains were enough to push the Nasdaq Composite and Russell 2000 to record closing levels.
Modest gains on Wall Street followed rallies in global equity markets which were boosted by optimism about a possible solution to Greece’s debt woes.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.12% gained 6.12 points, or 0.1% to 5,160.09, closing at a record for the second consecutive session. The Russell 2000 RUT, +0.26% gained 3.37 points, or 0.3%, to 1,295.76, its all-time high.
The main benchmark S&P 500 SPX, +0.06% eked out a gain of 1.41 points, or 0.1%, to settle at 2,124.27. Gains in five sectors were matched by losses in the other five sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.13% added 24.76 points, or 0.1%, to end at 18,144.54.
Kristina Hooper, U.S. investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors, noted the stock market gains in June, are so far defying seasonality.
“Usually, June is a weak month for stocks, but not this year, it appears. We would attribute that to improving economic indicators in the second quarter and the fact that the Federal Reserve will be slow and measured in normalizing interest rates,” Hooper said.
Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank, said the sideways move in the market over the past several months is reflective of rotation between sectors.
“There’s been a lot of churn out of sectors that will suffer from rising rates, such as utilities and consumer staples. On the other side, financials have outperformed. But the aggregate result is that we haven’t moved much,” Wiegand said, referring to the performance of the S&P 500 year-to-date.
Recent housing data, meanwhile, was encouraging, Wiegand said.
“Economists had written off housing, but it’s coming back and shows consumers are doing better. Housing also has a multiplier effect on the economy,” he said.
