4:05pm: Investors eye earnings
US stocks finished Tuesday modestly higher ahead of another flurry of earnings after the closing bell, including Ford, Snap and Chipotle.
The Dow Jones added 0.4% at 38,521 points, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% at 4,954 points and the Nasdaq was up 0.1% at 15,609 points.
12:00pm: Stocks concede early gains in absence of new catalysts
Stocks conceded early gains as investors awaited comments from a number of leading Fed officials for further clues on interest rates.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% at 38,426.91, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% at 4,938.59 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3% at 15,549.15.
Cleveland’s Loretta Mester, Minneapolis’ Neel Kashkari, Boston’s Susan Collins and Philadelphia’s Patrick Harker are among those speaking Tuesday.
On Sunday, Fed chair Jay Powell warned in an interview aired over the weekend that rate-setters expected to make about three cuts this year.
Traders last week were pricing in as many as six interest rate cuts.
Credit card delinquencies surged more than 50% in 2023 as total consumer debt swelled to $17.5 trillion, the New York Federal Reserve reported Tuesday.
Debt that has transitioned into “serious delinquency,” or 90 days or more past due, increased across multiple categories during the year, but none more so than credit cards.
9:45am: Stocks start Tuesday on the front foot
Stocks made steady progress when trading began on Tuesday boosted by gains in Eli Lilly and Palantir.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3% at 38,504.01, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% at 4,952.15 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2% at 15,633.97.
Eli Lilly rose 2.9% after its earnings beat expectations while Palantir soared 21% after the company’s revenue for the quarter increased 20% year over year to $608.4 million.
In a letter to shareholders, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said demand for large language models in the U.S. “continues to be unrelenting”.
Elsewhere, Boeing will face more scrutiny from the US federal aviation regulator, including “more boots on the ground” to monitor the beleaguered plane maker, the agency’s chief will tell Congress today.
According to prepared remarks released by the FAA, Whitaker will say: “Going forward, we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinising and monitoring production and manufacturing activities.”
7:00am: Modest falls expected; Eli Lilly jumps on earnings beat
Stock futures in New York edged lower on Tuesday as investors braced for another busy day of corporate news.
In pre-market trading, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2%, while those for the S&P 500 eased 0.1% and contracts for the Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.1%.
Results from KKR, Spotify, GE Healthcare, and Hertz are due for before the bell while Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Chipotle, Ford and Snap are reporting after the bell.
Also reporting, Eli Lilly rose 4.4% after reporting fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped expectations on the strong launch of its new weight loss drug Zepboud and higher prices for its blockbuster diabetes drug Mounjaro.