The Nasdaq Composite was up 30.74 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 5,019.38.
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The Dow Jones industrial average was last up 87.46 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 18,314.39. The US dollar index traded around 0.2% lower, with the euro by $1.11 and the yen around 104.3 yen against the greenback.
Stocks have crawled their way back into record territory after beginning 2016 with Wall Street’s worst start ever to a year and the S&P 500 has jumped more than 16% since its February 11 closing low.
“I think people are getting more comfortable within the growth area of the market”, said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth.
Japanese stocks jumped again, leading gains in world markets Tuesday as investors remained hopeful about the prospects of more stimuli following a stronger-than-expected election victory by the country’s ruling coalition.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 65 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $44.76 a barrel in NY. That came a day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at its own record high. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.6 percent at 5,444.20.
Yields rose as expectations of new stimulus in Japan boosted stocks and reduced demand for safe-haven bonds, and ahead of this week’s new supply. Stocks in mainland China, Singapore and Indonesia were also higher.
Corporate earnings are the biggest driver of stock prices, and they’re looking weak overall, notwithstanding Thursday’s batch of solid reports.
Earnings at S&P 500 earnings are expected to have fallen 5 percent in the second quarter, mirroring the first.
The S&P 500 was down 0.07 points, or roughly flat, at 2,152.07.
Procter & Gamble rose 1.3 percent to $87.04 after UBS upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral”. Goldman will report quarterly results Tuesday.
Overseas, European markets were mostly higher as Germany’s DAX rose 1.3% and France’s CAC 40 gained 1.4%.
“The market is now priced for more than 10 trillion yen, but it will be more about the fiscal-monetary coordination that is driving markets”, said Hans Redeker, head of currency strategy at Morgan Stanley.
Brent crude settled down $2.21, or 4.56 per cent, at $46.26 a barrel. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong climbed 0.7 percent to 21,709.69 and South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.5 percent to 2,019.62. Benchmark 10-year yields were last at 1.434 percent, from a yield of 1.365 percent late Friday.
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The dollar hit a almost three-week high against the yen of ¥105,93 on the greater risk appetite, while sterling hit a two-week high of $1.3480 after the BoE decision. Brent crude, a standard for worldwide oil prices, rose $1 to $47.25a barrel in London. And the federal Energy Information Administration reiterated in its short-term energy outlook that US crude oil production, which averaged 9.4 million barrels per day in 2015, would continue to slide to an average of 8.6 million barrels a day in 2016 and 8.2 million barrels a day in 2017.
