Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 Jumps as Chip Stocks Power Wall Street Higher

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

U.S. stocks moved higher in Tuesday trading as gains in semiconductor shares and another round of stronger-than-expected corporate earnings helped investors look past ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.7%, while the S&P 500 gained roughly 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced about 1.3%. Semiconductor stocks led the market higher, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) climbing around 4%. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) jumped about 10%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) gained roughly 7%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) rose about 7%, and Astera Labs (ALAB) added nearly 6%.

Earnings also supported sentiment. 3M (MMM) surged more than 9% after reporting quarterly results that exceeded expectations, while General Motors (GM) climbed about 5% following better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. According to FactSet data, nearly 88% of the 66 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have topped analysts’ profit estimates.

Investors also continued monitoring developments in the U.S.-Iran conflict and oil prices while awaiting earnings reports from Alphabet (GOOGL), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) later this week.