(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)
US equity indexes rose as technology and consumer discretionary led sectors, reflecting a positive sentiment ahead of Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft's (MSFT) quarterly results.
The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.2% to 26,477.81, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 7,722.60 on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up less than 0.1% to 52,377.57. Energy, real estate, and consumer staples led the decliners.
The Magnificent-7 duo will report earnings after the bell on Wednesday, also the day on which the Federal Reserve will announce its monetary policy decision for October. The Fed is widely anticipated to stay on hold ahead of the midterm elections.
In company news, Broadcom (AVGO) could generate up to $30 billion in sales by supplying artificial intelligence equipment to Anthropic under a $63 billion financing arrangement announced Monday, Truist Securities said in a client note.
Dell Technologies (DELL) said it expanded its cybersecurity and resilience portfolio across the AI environments, identifying "systems and infrastructure that attackers increasingly target and organizations cannot run without."
Of the 20 top-performing stocks in a category with market capitalization exceeding $200 billion each, as many as fifteen were technology firms, according to data compiled by Finviz. Dell led the pack, surging 7.5%, and Broadcom was among the top-10 gainers in the mega-caps with a 4% gain.
The iShares PHLX Semiconductor Exchange Traded Fund, home to companies closely linked to the AI industry and with about $48.43 billion in assets under management, jumped 4.3%, trading close to an intraday high.
In geopolitical news, Iranian Security Council Chief Mohsen Rezaei met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday, which is a day after holding talks with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, Reuters reported. Khamenei reiterated Tehran's conditions for ending the war with the US amid a regional diplomatic push to avert a fresh round of fighting in the Persian Gulf, Bloomberg reported.
Sufficient forces are now deployed to carry out potential attacks on Iran, unnamed sources told CNN. The scope of new US military operations would likely go beyond efforts to "mow the lawn" or maintain the status quo by striking radars, launchers and other Iranian assets that can be quickly reconstituted, the sources told the US broadcaster.
The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract dropped 1.5% to $100.23 per barrel, and global benchmark Brent retreated 1.3% to $114.26 per barrel.
Meanwhile, in economic news, the Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence rose to 91.7 in October from 84.2 in September, compared with the 81.0 expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
"The recovery was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October," said Fergus McCormick, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board. "Yet, despite the increase in October, consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that's persisted over the past few years."
New orders for US durable goods rose 1.8% in September from a 0.1% gain in the previous month, missing expectations for a 1.9% increase in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. Excluding a 4.6% jump in transportation orders, new orders would have risen 0.5% after climbing 0.3% in August. Expectations were for a 0.6% gain.
Redbook US same-store sales surged 9.3% from a year earlier in the week ended Oct. 24 after a 9% year-over-year jump in the previous week. Halloween merchandise sales are picking up, an early indicator that Christmas sales could be strong, said Redbook.
Most US Treasury yields rose. The two-year yield climbed 2.8 basis points to 4.74%, and the 10-year rate rose by 1.5 basis points to almost 5.00%.
Gold futures rose 0.9% to $4,073.4, and silver futures edged up 0.3% to $54.49.
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