US STOCKS-S&P 500 closes at record high as Apple, healthcare stocks help shrug off Delta worries

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03/08/2021 21:32

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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 0.8%, S&P 0.82%, Nasdaq 0.55%

 (Updates prices to close, adds comments)
    By Echo Wang
    NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 index closed at
record high on Tuesday on gains in Apple and healthcare stocks,
despite concerns over a surge in the Delta variant of the
coronavirus taking 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 .
    “Even though the pandemic is still with us in certain places
where there are pockets of this and that, the broad shutdowns of
economies are not going to happen. And I think it demonstrates
that consumption patterns are super strong, which is the
underlying factor that really keeps markets up,” said Jamie Cox,
managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Richmond,
Virginia.
    Apple Inc  AAPL.O  rose 1.26% 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
    A deepening regulatory scrutiny in China has sent jitters
through the global technology sector. 
    Shares in U.S.- and European-listed gaming companies fell
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 7.71% after it issued a disappointing sales
forecast.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2P93HF
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 278.24 points,
or 0.8%, to 35,116.4, the S&P 500  .SPX  gained 35.99 points, or
0.82%, to 4,423.15 and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  added 80.23
points, or 0.55%, to 14,761.30.
    The S&P 500's  .SPX  previous record closing high was
4,422.30.   
    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
29.23%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 
  6.19% and 6.13% 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
    “The earnings reports continue to come in very strong or
stronger than people expect, which leads me to believe that
people are underestimating the strength of recovery,” said Cox.
    Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.28 billion shares, compared
with the 9.73 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.
    Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.60-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.05-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
    The S&P 500 posted 70 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 91 new highs and 117 new lows.  

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