US STOCKS-Apple, healthcare stocks help Wall St shrug off Delta worries

Telesis Bio

03/08/2021 19:09

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    * Dupont, Discovery slide despite strong earnings
    * Translate Bio surges on sale to Sanofi in $3.2-bln deal
    * Focus on services sector data, jobs report this week
    * Indexes up: Dow 0.63%, S&P 0.63%, Nasdaq 0.29%

 (Updates to afternoon trading, adds comments)
    By Echo Wang
    Aug 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on Tuesday
on gains in Apple and healthcare stocks, even though concerns
around a surge in the Delta variant of the coronavirus took some
shine off an upbeat corporate earnings season.
    Ten of the 11 S&P indexes traded higher, with energy stocks
 .SPNY  rebounding after getting hit by a dip in oil prices
 O/R .
    “We've been dealing with a tug of war between what has been
a very strong economic recovery consistent with the reopening
and that's playing out through corporate earnings," said Bill
Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth
Management in Minneapolis. He also noted "concerns about the
renewed mitigation efforts that are being put in place around
the new variants to the COVID-19 virus.” 
    Apple Inc  AAPL.O  rose 1.57% after sliding last week. Other
heavyweight technology stocks, including Netflix Inc  NFLX.O ,
Tesla Inc  TSLA.O  and Facebook Inc  FB.O  continued to edge
lower, capping gains on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
    A clutch of U.S. companies, including industrial materials
maker Dupont  DD.N  and Discovery Inc  DISCA.O , reported
better-than-expected quarterly results, but their shares fell as
investors booked profits amid lofty stock valuations.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2PA27O  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2PA2GX
    Rising cases of the Delta variant and signs that the
domestic economic rebound has begun to slow have knocked the
three main U.S. stock indexes off record highs, while a
deepening regulatory scrutiny in China has sent jitters through
the global technology sector.
    Shares in U.S.- and European-listed gaming companies fell
between 2.8% and 4.6% after a steep sell-off in China's social
media and video games group Tencent  0700.HK , driven by fears
the sector could be next in regulators' crosshairs.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PA0RB
    "Grand Theft Auto" creator Take-Two Interactive Software Inc
 TTWO.O  plunged 9.58% after it issued a disappointing sales
forecast.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2P93HF
    By 2:07 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI 
rose 218.3 points, or 0.63%, to 35,056.46, the S&P 500  .SPX 
gained 27.77 points, or 0.63%, to 4,414.93 and the Nasdaq
Composite  .IXIC  added 41.91 points, or 0.29%, to 14,722.98.
By 1:55PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose
210.88 points, or 0.61%, to 35,049.04, the S&P 500  .SPX  gained
26.97 points, or 0.61%, to 4,414.13 and the Nasdaq Composite
 .IXIC  added 49.52 points, or 0.34%, to 14,730.59.
    Data on Tuesday showed U.S. factory orders rose 1.5% in June
after a 2.3% increase in the previous month. Economists polled
by Reuters had expected a rise of 1% in June.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nAQN04HHTI
    Later in the week, focus will shift to data on the U.S.
services sector and the monthly jobs report for July.
    In M&A-driven moves, Translate Bio  TBIO.O  surged 28.99%
after France's Sanofi  SASY.PA  agreed to buy the U.S. biotech
company in a $3.2 billion deal.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PA0BI
    Under Armour Inc  UA.N  and Ralph Lauren Corp  RL.N  jumped
5.5% and 6.8%, respectively, after raising their annual revenue
forecasts.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2PA2E2
    Overall, earnings at S&P 500 firms are estimated to have
climbed about 90% in the second quarter versus forecasts of
65.4% at the start of July, according to IBES data from
Refinitiv.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2P90ZH
    Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.21-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.35-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
    The S&P 500 posted 59 new 52-week highs and three new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 new highs and 96 new lows.  

 (Reporting by Echo Wang; additional reporting by Sagarika
Jaisinghani, Sruthi Shankar and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Arun Koyyur and Dan Grebler)
 ((Echo.wang@thomsonreuters.com;))