U.S. stocks rallied to records, again, on Tuesday. What made this time more jubilant was how many companies joined the party.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to set an all-time high for the 38th time this year. Unlike other record-setting days, Tuesday’s came after a widespread rally where nearly nine out of every 10 stocks in the S&P 500 rose, instead of just the handful of influential Big Tech stocks that have been behind most of this year’s returns.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 742 points, or 1.8%, to lead the market a day after setting its own record. The Nasdaq composite lagged with a gain of 0.2%, as the stars dimmed for some of the year’s biggest winners.
Shoppers paused their spending in June from May, defying economic forecasts for a pullback and proving their resilience in the face of an uncertain economy
Retail sales were unchanged in June from May, after being revised upward to a 0.3% increase in May, according to the Commerce Department report Tuesday. Last month, April sales were revised downward — a 0.2% decline, from unchanged. Sales rose 0.6% in March and 0.9% in February. That comes after sales fell 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather.
Sales at gas stations and auto dealerships weighed down the figure. Excluding gas prices and auto sales, retail sales rose 0.8%. Sales at gas stations were down 0.3%, while business at auto stores fell 0.2%, as dealerships were disrupted by a multiday outage after cyberattacks on a software supplier.
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