The S&P 500 touched a record high and extended gains to a fifth session on Tuesday, as investors sifted through a slew of earnings, while a Medicare Advantage payment proposal from the White House sent health insurers sharply lower. The S&P 500 now hovers about 15 points shy of the 7,000 milestone – a mark that analysts have pegged as a potential pocket of technical resistance.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq touched a near three-month high as earnings took center-stage. Bellwether United Parcel Service UPS.N projected higher revenue for 2026, and rose 4.8%. Peer FedEx FDX.N added 3%. Results from parcel carriers are often used as a key barometer to gauge U.S. economic health.
Boeing BA.N swung to a fourth-quarter profit, and gained 1%, while General Motors GM.N advanced 9.2% after reporting higher fourth‑quarter core profit. In airlines, American Airlines AAL.O fell 3.6% despite issuing a 2026 profit forecast that topped estimates. JetBlue JBLU.O fell 6% on a wider‑than‑expected quarterly loss. Airlines are contending with mass cancellations triggered by severe winter weather across the U.S. East Coast.
The Dow fell behind, pressured by an 18.7% drop in UnitedHealth UNH.N after the White House floated only a modest increase in Medicare insurer payment rates. The proposal clouded over the insurer’s forecast for 2026 adjusted profit, which was above analysts’ expectations. Peers Humana HUM.N and CVS CVS.N fell 19.6% and 12.2%, respectively.
Most tech stocks extended Monday’s gains, with Apple AAPL.O and Broadcom AVGO.O up 2% each, while Nvidia NVDA.O and Microsoft MSFT.O gained 1.8% each. Amazon AMZN.O added over 1%. Meta META.O , Microsoft and Tesla TSLA.O report earnings on Wednesday, kicking off results from the so‑called “Magnificent Seven”, which will test the AI trade that has underpinned Wall Street’s rally for much of the past year.
Signs of crowding in the AI trade have recently spurred a rotation into small‑caps and other undervalued parts of the market. The Russell 2000 index, has risen over 7% while the S&P 600 small-cap index .SPCY has advanced over 6% this month, compared with the benchmark S&P 500’s 2% gain. In total, 102 S&P 500 companies are set to post earnings results this week. Of the 64 that had reported as of Friday, 79.7% have topped analyst expectations, as per data compiled by LSEG.
The broader info-tech sector .SPLRCT rose 1.8% as Corning GLW.N jumped 15% to its highest since 2000. The Gorilla Glass maker signed a deal with Meta worth up to $6 billion for fiber-optic cables in AI data centers.
The Federal Reserve begins its two‑day policy meeting on Tuesday, with investors broadly expecting the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged. Attention will be on policymakers’ guidance, with traders alert to any signals around the Fed’s leadership outlook. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in January, slumping to its lowest level since 2014.
Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri\.
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