Wall Street today: Dow Jones, S&P 500 gain amid strong earnings, GM rallies 14.3%

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 gained on Tuesday, following the prior session's strong rally as market participants sifted through a large volume of corporate earnings reports.

While the US government shutdown caused an economic data vacuum, investors were gearing up for inflation data later in the week.

As of 11:50 AM Eastern Time, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite was edging down by less than 0.1%.

As of 10:30 AM Eastern Time, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% lower.

At 09:30 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.17 points, or 0.03%, to 46,719.75. The S&P 500 gained 2.85 points, or 0.04%, to 6,737.98, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 9.71 points, or 0.04%, to 22,980.83.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.95% from 4.00% late on Monday.

Gainers and Losers

General Motors stock rallied 14.3% after reporting stronger quarterly results than expected.

RTX shares jumped more than 6.5% after the aerospace and defense company delivered better quarterly profit.

Coca-Cola shares rose 3.5% after the company topped Wall Street’s profit expectations.

Warner Bros. Discovery stock climbed 9.2% after the company said it’s now considering other options besides its previously announced split of Discovery Global off Warner Bros. that could be more profitable for shareholders.

Among Big Tech stocks, Google-parent Alphabet dropped 1.9% and Nvidia sank 1.3%.

Bullion Market

Gold prices were set for their steepest daily drop in five years on Tuesday as the US dollar gained ground and investors took profits following diminishing expectations for interest rate cuts in the America.

Spot gold was down 5.5% at a one-week low of $4,115.83 per ounce as of 14:51 GMT. Likewise, US gold futures for December delivery fell by 5.3% to trade at $4,129.20 per ounce. The sell-off also affected other precious metals: spot silver plunged 8.4% to $48.06 per ounce, platinum shed 7% to $1,523.30, and palladium lost 6.6% to settle at $1,398.

Crude Oil

Oil prices saw a modest increase on Monday in volatile trading, as investors balanced expectations of stronger demand against geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and ongoing supply management efforts by major producers.

Brent crude futures rose $0.85, or 0.95%, to $90.15 a barrel.

The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures contract for front-month delivery climbed $0.78, or 0.91%, to $85.80 a barrel.