US close: Stocks snap three-day slump

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Tuesday following a three-day slump for major indices.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.60% at 35,492.70, while the S&P 500 was 1.78% firmer at 4,649.23 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.40% stronger at 15,341.09.

The Dow Jones closed 560.654 points higher on Tuesday, reclaiming some of the losses recorded in the previous session as market participants monitored a resurgence in global Covid-19 cases due to the fast-spreading omicron variant.

Omicron was still firmly in focus on Tuesday, with the variant now being found in at least 43 US states and over 90 countries across the globe.

The World Health Organization warned that omicron was more contagious than any previous strain of Covid-19 on Monday, with the variant accounting for 73% of new infections in the States last week.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rebounded slightly to 1.461% after fears that omicron would decelerate the US' economic recovery dragged it down as low as 1.36% last week.

Market participants also continued to digest news that President Joe Biden's economic agenda might be stalled, with the Senate set to vote on his social safety net and climate policy bill in January, despite Democratic senator Joe Manchin's opposition to it.

Reopening plays like Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Wynn Resorts traded slightly higher, while Micron shares surged after the chipmaker posted better than expected quarterly earnings overnight and issued some bullish guidance.

In terms of today's earnings, Apogee narrowed its full-year adjusted profit guidance and posted a third-quarter profit beat on slightly increased revenues, while General Mills missed quarterly profit estimates on the back of supply chain woes throughout the period.

After the close, BlackBerry beat revenue expectations in both its internet-of-things and cybersecurity units in the three months ended 30 November.

No major data points were slated for release on Tuesday.

Dow Jones - Risers

Nike Inc. (NKE) $166.63 6.15%
Boeing Co. (BA) $199.52 5.86%
American Express Co. (AXP) $160.91 3.22%
Visa Inc. (V) $215.38 3.18%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $151.05 3.13%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $50.77 2.36%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $49.97 2.34%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $380.30 2.34%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $327.29 2.31%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $252.55 2.16%