By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Tuesday continued to hover near their intraday record highs supported by an energy-led bid in cyclicals amid easing investor jitters about a slowing global economy.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, and remained close to its earlier intraday record of 4,492.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%, or 71 points, the Nasdaq climbed 0.40%, after hitting a intraday record of 15,027.2.
Energy continued its bright start to the week, riding another surge in oil prices amid renewed hopes on the oil demand outlook as China begins to ease restrictions after curbing the Delta variant of Covid-19 outbreak.
"It seems that the concerns about demand […] have lost much of their scare factor, at least for now," Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said, pointing to "clear success" that China has had in combating the spread infections. "There have been no new cases there since the weekend," it added.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Nov (NYSE:NOV), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) led the move higher in the energy sector.
Consumer discretionary stocks also played a role in the broader market advance, underpinned by a surge in Best Buy .
Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) jumped more than 9% after its second-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates, with comparable-store sales rising 19.6%, ahead for forecasts for 18.4%.
Rallying casino stocks added further fuel to the rally in consumer discretionary stocks after Macau, the gambling mecca of Asia, said it would ease traveling restrictions for visitors from the mainland.
Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN), Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR), and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) were up sharply, with the latter climbing more than 7% after
Megacap tech stocks traded mostly higher, though Apple and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) struggled to join in.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and MSFT were in the red, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and MSFT were higher.
On the economic front, new home sales rose 1.0% in July to 708,000 units, missing forecasts for 3.1%. On annualized basis, sales fell 27.2% following a 16.5% decline in June.
In other news, Chinese tech stocks were also in rebound mode following pressure in recent weeks from an expanding regulatory crackdown on the sector in China.
Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), JD.com (NASDAQ:JD), were sharply higher.