S&P 500 and Nasdaq Rise on Election Day as Dow Slips

The S&P 500 closed up 0.36% at 7,568.71 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.83% to 25,372.01, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.38% to 51,786.72. The Russell 2000, which tracks smaller companies, edged up 0.23% to 2,812.45. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 1.16% to 4.951%, and the VIX, a gauge of expected market volatility, fell 1.61% to 20.81.

The biggest S&P 500 moves

Fiserv led the S&P 500 with a gain of 12.46% to $58.40. DuPont rose 8.61% to $153.46 after the company's third-quarter results topped expectations, with organic sales up 5% from a year earlier and adjusted earnings per share (EPS, profit per share) well ahead of what analysts had penciled in, CNBC reported. Bloom Energy climbed 9.05% to $214.01, and Revvity added 7.84% to $163.48; AppLovin rose 7.28% to $245.51 ahead of its quarterly report due after Tuesday's close.

On the downside, Gartner fell 13.19% to $204.22, the steepest decline in the index. Sysco dropped 9.33% to $74.11, Zebra Technologies fell 8.76% to $329.50, Ball Corporation slid 7.14% to $63.21, and Archer Daniels Midland lost 6.82% to $70.60.

Sectors

Four of the eleven S&P 500 sectors finished higher. Technology led with a gain of 1.31%, followed by communication services at 1.18% and industrials at 0.95%, with real estate barely positive at 0.07%.

Consumer staples lagged the most, down 2.07%, just behind materials, which fell 2.04%. Energy, consumer discretionary, financials, utilities and health care also closed lower.

New highs and lows

Seven S&P 500 stocks touched a 52-week high on Tuesday, including Pfizer, Expeditors International and Verisign, while Aptiv was the only stock to touch a 52-week low, closing at $41.34, down 6.53%.

On the calendar

September factory orders rose 1.8%, ahead of the 1.2% consensus and well above August's 0.3% increase. Durable goods orders excluding defense climbed 2.3% in September, slightly above the 2.2% forecast, while durable goods orders excluding transportation rose 0.5%, matching expectations. Job openings for September came in at 7.52 million, above the 7.1 million consensus and up from 7.19 million in August. The American Petroleum Institute's crude oil inventory report for the week of October 30 had not yet shown a figure against a forecast of a 2.1 million barrel increase.

Tomorrow, the ADP employment change for October is expected to show an increase of 69,000 jobs, and the Institute for Supply Management's services purchasing managers' index (PMI) for October is forecast at 54.8. Before the opening bell, CDW, Cencora, Charles River Laboratories, CVS Health and Datadog are among the companies due to report quarterly results.