S&P 500, Dow Close at New Highs as Mining Stocks Rise on China Stimulus Boost

WALL STREET - NEW YORK. The S&P 500 and Dow ended at record highs on Tuesday, shrugging off weak consumer confidence data, as mining stocks surged following China's announcement of a sweeping stimulus package.

The indexes initially trimmed gains after a report from the Conference Board revealed an unexpected decline in U.S. consumer confidence in September, driven by growing concerns about the labor market's health.

“Today's price action is predominantly about what happened overnight with the policy announcements from China, direct support for their equity market and pledges to cut interest rates in the future, has caused a really sharp move in international stocks in general,” said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“That's feeding through into parts of the U.S. market, where you see some more China-sensitive, more cyclical industries like metals and mining materials sector outperforming.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.57 points, or 0.20%, to 42,208.22, the S&P 500 gained 14.36 points, or 0.25%, to 5,732.93 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 100.25 points, or 0.56%, to 18,074.52.

Five of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with material stocks outperforming peers with a 1.35% rise.

Metal prices got a boost after the world's second-largest economy, China, unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk.

Copper and lithium miners rose. Freeport-McMoRan rose 7.93%, Southern Copper added 7.22%, Albemarle advanced 1.97% and Arcadium Lithium climbed 3.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms such as Alibaba rose 7.88%, PDD Holdings added 11.79% and Li Auto advanced 11.37%, tracking gains in the domestic market.

Megacap stocks were mixed, with Nvidia gaining 3.9%, while Microsoft lost 1.15%. The broader technology sector rose 0.79%.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index was up 1.23% as chip stocks Qualcomm and Intel rose 0.54% and 1.11%, respectively.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman cautioned that key inflation measures remained "uncomfortably above" the Fed's 2% target, warranting caution as the Fed proceeds with cutting interest rates.

Weekly jobless claims and personal consumption expenditure data remain in focus this week.

Among stocks, Visa lost 5.49% after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the company for alleged antitrust violations. This weighed on the financial sector .SPSY which slipped 0.92%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.93-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 636 new highs and 43 new lows on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 62 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 103 new highs and 101 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.42 billion shares, compared with 11.60 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.