Stocks rose slightly higher Tuesday as market participants looked ahead towards blockbuster earnings reports that include Nvidia on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked above the flatline, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite both advanced about 0.2%.
Here's how the market settled on Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.16% or +8.96 points to 5,625.80
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.02% or +9.98 points to 41,250.50
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.16% or +29.06 points to 17,754.82
In Focus:
Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) shares were under pressure on Tuesday after Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the information technology company, alleging "accounting manipulation."
Hindenburg said it found evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, among other issues, citing an investigation that included interviews and litigation records. The firm believes Super Micro "benefited as an early mover but still faces significant accounting, governance and compliance issues and offers an inferior product and service now being eroded away by more credible competition."
Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ: META) Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration "pressured" the company to "censor" content related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree," Zuckerberg wrote in a letter posted on the committee's Facebook page on Tuesday.
In a statement to Politico, the White House said: "Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present."
Goldman Sachs forecasted that higher U.S. Crude prices spurred by production disruptions in Libya will likely be short-term. On Monday, U.S. crude prices rose more than 3% o the news, but prices have since traded below $77 per barrel on Tuesday. The firm expects about 600,000 barrels per day of Libyan production to be absent from the market in September, with some recovery to be seen in October by a reduction to 200,000 barrels per day.
Still, Goldman lowered its Brent Crude price forecast to a range of $70 to $85 per barrel, with the bank expecting the global benchmark to be pressured by waning demand stemming from China's broader adoption of electric vehicles and increased U.S. supply.
In Economic News:
U.S. Home Prices rose to a record level in June, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index's reading on Tuesday, even as mortgage rates continue to rise in response in-part to higher-for-longer interest rates. The S&P's three-month running average saw prices rise 5.4% nationally in June year-over-year. However, the annual gain was lower than May's 5.9% reading despite the new record.
Beneath the headline, the index's 10-city composite rose 7.4% annually in June, while the 20-city composite was 6.5% higher compared to the previous year, both also decreasing from May's gains.
"While both housing and inflation have slowed, the gap between the two is larger than historical norms, with our National Index averaging 2.8% more than the Consumer Price Index," Brian Luke, head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement. "That is a full percentage point above the 50-year average. Before accounting for inflation, home prices have risen over 1,100% since 1974, but have slightly more than doubled (111%) after accounting for inflation."
Consumer Confidence rose in August, The Conference Board reported Tuesday, as inflation outlooks dipped to their lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm's monthly survey's headline index rose 1.4 points from July to 103.3 in August, coming in ahead of expectations.
When it comes to inflation, the 12-month expectation index eased to 4.9%, marking its lowest level since March 2020. However, this outlook remains well above the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%.
In Single-Stock News:
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) released a new form of its popular weight loss drug Zepbound on Tuesday at about half of its usual monthly list price to benefit millions of patients without insurance coverage. The pharmaceutical giant is now offering 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram single-dose vials of the GLP-1 injection for $399 per month and $529 per month, respectively, through its direct-to-consumer website.
For Wednesday:
Market participants will turn their attention towards earnings from companies including Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) and PVH (NYSE: PVH) on Wednesday during the day as they trade ahead of highly anticipated results from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CWRD) and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) after closing bell.