Dow Rides Energy, U-Turn in Tech to Close Higher By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The Dow climbed Tuesday, as a surge in energy and a u-turn in tech eased the stumble in consumer stocks following Target’s warning on profit. 

The rose 0.80%, or 264 points, the added 0.94%, and the  rose 0.9%.

Energy stocks continued to add to their 60% gain so far this year, supported by rising oil prices as fears of a crude shortfall persist in the wake of easing Covid-19 restrictions in China that many bet will likely boost demand.  

APA (NASDAQ:), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:) were the biggest sector gainers, with the latter lifted by an upgrade from Evercore to outperform from inline, citing attractive valuations. The firm also raised its price target on the stock to $120 from $88.

The early-day stumble in tech stocks, however, proved shorted-lived, as dip-buyers swooped into big tech to help the broader market steady.

Apple (NASDAQ:), which was down about 2% in premarket trading, cut losses to end the day up nearly 2% as investors continued to mull the tech giant’s new product announcements from a day earlier including its buy now, pay later product revealed on Monday.

Consumer stocks were the sole sector in the red weighed down by a 2% fall in Target (NYSE:). The retailer cut its margin guidance for the current quarter to about 2% from 5.3% previously, as it takes measures including ramping up promotional activity to cut excess levels of inventory.  

Other retailers including Walmart (NYSE:) and Best Buy (NYSE:) were down about 1% each.

A rally in Novavax (NASDAQ:) pushed health care stocks higher after the drug maker’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine took a huge step toward regulatory authorization in the U.S.

In other news, Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:) fell 4% on reports that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is closing in on plans to create an auction-styled system to increase competition for trading orders, marking a potential blow to trading brokerages like Robinhood that heavily rely on rebates from exchanges and payment for order flow from market makers.