Nasdaq, S&P 500 post record closing highs

NEW YORK – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq eked out record closing highs on Tuesday, with tech-related shares extending recent gains as investors awaited further jobs data.

The Dow finished slightly lower on the day.

Among S&P 500 sectors, technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary were the only gainers, extending their advance on Monday.

Market watchers also digested reassuring comments from Federal Reserve policymakers. Two policymakers said they see inflation heading down to the US central bank’s 2% target and that the job market is “solid.”

They stayed away from signaling whether they would support another interest rate cut later this month. On Monday, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he was inclined “at present” to support another rate cut this month.

Investors will pay close attention to the US monthly employment report on Friday. They also are keen to see other data this week, including a November reading of private payrolls and the Institute for Supply Management’s services report.

“The market is kind of waiting for the big data, which would be ISM and the (employment report) on Friday … so people are sitting on their hands a little bit,” said Paul Nolte, senior wealth advisor and market strategist for Murphy & Sylvest in Elmhurst, Illinois.

A report on Tuesday showed US job openings increased solidly in October while layoffs dropped by the most in 1-1/2 years.

Financial markets expect a roughly 72% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the Fed’s Dec. 17-18 policy meeting, CME Group’s FedWatch tool showed.

Shares of Amazon rose 1.3%. The company announced a new slate of artificial intelligence platforms, known as foundation models, at its annual AWS conference.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76.47 points, or 0.17%, to 44,705.53, the S&P 500 gained 2.73 points, or 0.05%, to 6,049.88 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 76.96 points, or 0.40%, to 19,480.91.

The S&P 500 advanced 5.7% in November as former US President Donald Trump recaptured the White House in the Nov. 5 election and his Republican Party swept both houses of Congress. The index is up roughly 27% for the year to date.

“This is a market that has performed extremely well. You want it to pause, take a breather and wait for another catalyst to push it higher,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist, LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Dow transportation average  fell 2% in its biggest daily percentage drop since September.

US-listed shares of South Korean companies also declined, with iShares MSCI South Korea ETF easing 1.6%.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would move to lift a martial law declaration he had imposed just hours before that unnerved world markets.

Shares of Tesla declined 1.6% after data showed the automaker’s sales of China-made electric vehicles fell 4.3% year-on-year to 78,856 in November.

After the closing bell, Salesforce shares rose about 7% following the release of its results, including stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue. The stock ended the regular session 0.1% higher.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 310 new highs and 50 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 1,647 stocks rose and 2,732 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.66-to-1 ratio.

Volume on US exchanges was 12.70 billion shares, compared with the 14.81 billion full-session average over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Richard Chang)