By Jack Pitcher
Investors regained their appetite for some risk Tuesday, with stocks rebounding and bitcoin retracing its sharp Monday decline.
The major U.S. stock indexes have remained resilient despite nagging concerns over rich valuations and the path of interest rates. The S&P 500 was back to within 1% of its October record following Tuesday's moves.
The Nasdaq composite added 0.6%, boosted by Intel and other chip makers. The S&P 500 rose 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185 points, or 0.4%.
Trading volume was relatively light, with 51 million shares of the largest S&P 500 exchange-traded fund, SPY, trading hands on the New York Stock Exchange, according to FactSet. The average daily volume is 77 million shares.
More speculative corners of the market such as cryptocurrencies and unprofitable tech stocks have been hit harder and still below the year's highs. Bitcoin, which rebounded to above $91,000 on Tuesday, remains down close to 17% over the past month. The cryptocurrency posted its worst day since March on Monday.
Boeing and Intel, corporate stalwarts that have fallen on hard times, were the S&P 500's two best performers on Tuesday. Boeing shares jumped by 10% after the company's finance chief said during a conference that the company expects deliveries of its 737 and 787 jets to rise next year. Intel rose 9%, hitting the highest level since April 2024.
Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials have Wall Street overwhelmingly betting on an interest-rate cut at the central bank's meeting later this month. "Incremental weakness" in the labor market now looks like a bigger issue than the risk of accelerating inflation, clearing the path for the Fed to cut, said Jack Janasiewicz, lead portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers
The Fed's preferred inflation gauge is set for release Friday, and Janasiewicz does still see cause for concern with how inflation is affecting lower-income consumers. Food, rent and car prices are all rising at a faster pace than the headline inflation rate, while wage growth for the lowest income cohort is slowing at a faster pace than the rest of the group.
"We see a pretty dim picture," Janasiewicz said.
Procter & Gamble CFO Andre Schulten said Tuesday that the maker of products such as Pampers and Gillette razors is feeling the effects of a more cautious consumer on its sales this quarter. P&G shares fell 1.1%, at one point touching a two-year low.
Overseas, Japanese government bonds remained in focus after hawkish comments from the country's central bank chief on Monday. The 30-year yield set a record intraday high, but benchmark borrowing costs ended the day lower, following a well-received debt auction.
Stocks rallied in Seoul after the U.S. confirmed levies on South Korean vehicles will drop to 15% from 25%. That will be retroactive to early November. Automakers Kia and Hyundai both rose more than 4%.
Write to Jack Pitcher at jack.pitcher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2025 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)
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