US stocks on Tuesday jumped to record highs yet again as investors cheered a particularly strong round of earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 300 points, or 0.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.6%, too. At its high, the Dow jumped 0.8%.
The S&P 500 ticked up 0.1% after hitting a fresh all-time intraday high earlier in the session.
“While the market’s past few days of gains might be perplexing to some investors, there is justification for this latest melt up in stocks,” Paul Stanley, chief investment officer at Granite Bay Wealth Management, said in a note Tuesday.
“The stock market is getting everything it wants, from a Federal Reserve rate cut to a thawing of U.S-China trade tensions to continued strength in earnings.”
About one third of S&P 500 companies have reported their earnings so far this quarter – and 83% of those firms have surpassed Wall Street estimates, according to FactSet.
Shares in United Parcel Service and Wayfair rose 7.7% and 22.8%, respectively, after both firms reported revenues and earnings that beat expectations.
PayPal shares soared 9.9% after the company reported strong earnings and announced a new deal with OpenAI to have its digital wallet embedded in ChatGPT. The partnership will allow users to buy items through the uber-popular AI chatbot.
Tuesday’s stock rally also pushed Apple and Microsoft past market caps of $4 trillion.
The iPhone maker is only the third stock in history to cross that mark. Microsoft previously hit $4 trillion in July.
Both companies are still trailing Nvidia. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker is the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of $4.6 trillion.
A good chunk of the “Magnificent Seven” tech firms – which include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft – are slated to report earnings this week. These seven stocks make up about one quarter of the S&P 500’s overall value.
Further adding to investor optimism, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point after its two-day meeting ends on Wednesday. Traders bet over 95% odds on a quarter-point cut to the 3.75% to 4% range, according to CME FedWatch.
Meanwhile, investors remained hopeful that President Trump will clinch a trade deal with China this week.
US stocks closed at all-time highs Monday after Trump – who is scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday – said he will “come away with the deal.”
Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the deal would likely lead Trump to nix his threatened 100% tariff on China and delay Beijing’s strict export controls on rare earths, which are key to energy infrastructure, defense technologies and manufacturing.
