By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – Wall Street ended strongly Tuesday as a rebound in tech and the start of earnings season overshadowed rising Covid cases.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.39%, the S&P 500 gained 0.82%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.46%.
Tech turned positive as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) eased from the lows of the day.
The rebound in tech arrived even as cases continued to rise, though there was reason for optimism in California were cases rose by 7,346, compared with an 8,358 increase a day earlier, stoking investor hopes that infections in the state could be flattening. California had announced a day earlier that it would be shutting down all indoor activity, leading to sell-off across stocks on Monday.
Coronavirus cases nationwide totaled 3.43 million, with 138,000 dead so far.
Investor attention was also fixed on the start of earnings season.
Financials ended slightly higher following mixed earnings from banks as JPMorgan and Citigroup beat consensus estimates thanks to strong trading revenue, while Wells Fargo cut its dividend by 80% and reported its first-quarter loss in more than a decade.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) ended up 0.56%, while Citigroup (NYSE:C) was down 3.93%, and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) fell 4.55%.
The quarterly results provided investors with further insight into the impact from the pandemic on lending activity, as the trio of banks collectively socked away nearly $28 billion to fortify themselves for a potential wave of bad loans.
Energy was the biggest gainer on the day, as oil prices remained steady despite ongoing concerns about the strength of the recovery in crude demand.
"There is a lot of concern that if more states begin to shut back down over Covid concerns, that could affect gasoline demand and thus the demand for ethanol," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), up 1.3%, held onto slim gains after Piper Sandler (NYSE:PIPR) lifted its price on the stock to a Street high of $2,322 citing the electric automaker's first-mover advantage.