Stocks traded in a narrow range Tuesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was able to finish the session at a new all-time high.
The Dow gained 2.77 points, turning positive at the close to finish at 14,450.06. It was the sixth consecutive record close for the blue chip index. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 10.55 points to 3.242.32 and the S&P 500 Stock Index dropped 3.74 points to 1,552.48.
The markets will be waiting for an important report on retail sales in February due out before the start of trading Wednesday. It will show how consumers have been affected by higher payroll taxes and rising gas prices.
Gold rose $13.70 to $1,591.70 an ounce. And, oil moved higher by 48 cents to $92.54 a barrel.
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) slumped 2.2 percent as IDC predicted the company will lose market share in the tablet market. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) dropped 1.4 percent as financial shares retreated amid speculation bank debt will face scrutiny by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Costco Wholesale Corp. (Nasdaq: COST) gained 1.3 percent after second-quarter profit rose 39 percent.
“After setting new all-time highs for several consecutive days, the market may be a little tired, and rightly so,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said in an interview. His firm oversees $250 billion. “With little in the way of catalysts, it would not be surprising to see the streak end. That being said, as long as central bank accommodation remains, any pullback should be short-term in nature.”
More than $10 trillion has been restored to U.S. equity values during the four-year bull market as the S&P 500 more than doubled from the bottom in 2009, fueled by corporate earnings that topped estimates and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. The Dow recouped all its losses from the financial crisis in less than 65 months, more than a year faster than the recovery from the Internet bubble.
U.S. equity funds attracted $4.9 billion in the first week of March, the most in more than a month, according to data from EPFR Global.
Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) tumbled 4.8 percent to $50.60, while Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) fell 0.9 percent to $827.61.
Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) lost 2.8 percent to $180.79. The company plans to offer $1 billion in convertible senior notes in a private placement to institutional investors. A portion of proceeds from the notes will be used for acquisitions, investments in technology and capital expenditures, the San Francisco-based company said Tuesday in a statement.
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) fell 1.6 percent, the most in the Dow, to $89.74. Tigress Financial Partners LLC initiated research coverage of the company with an underperform rating.
U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SLCA) dropped 7.8 percent to $24.47. The silica producer said GGC USS Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, will sell 8.5 million shares of the company’s common stock in an underwritten offering.
J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) rose 4 percent to $15.65. The company that last month posted the lowest annual sales in more than two decades said speculation that Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson plans to leave the company is wrong.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) climbed 1.5 percent to $84.16. The Chicago-based company won a jet order from Ryanair Holdings Plc (Nasdaq: RYAAY) valued at $15.1 billion at list price, selling 170 of its 737-model planes as that aircraft is phased out in favor of the Max version, people familiar with the matter said.
Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) climbed 1.3 percent to $68.73. The company said first-quarter same-store sales fell 20 percent in China, less than the 25 percent drop analysts had estimated.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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