Wall Street took a breather on Tuesday, with most major indices treading water, while tech stocks saw gains as investors braced for earnings reports from mega-cap companies.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7%, buoyed by anticipation around upcoming earnings from Alphabet Inc. GOOGLGOOG and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, both set to report after market close.

Elsewhere, the S&P 500 was largely unchanged, the Dow Jones dipped slightly, and small-cap stocks underperformed.

In economic news, U.S. job openings dropped by 418,000 to 7.443 million in September 2024 — marking the lowest level since January 2021 and falling short of the market’s expectation of 7.99 million.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index surged, posting its largest monthly gain since March 2021. This suggests that while labor demand may be slowing, consumer sentiment remains robust.

Treasury yields continued to climb during concerns over the U.S. budget deficit and political uncertainty ahead of next week’s elections. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 4.33%, the highest level since early July.

Notably, gold prices remained resilient, with the precious metal breaking above the all-time high of $2,770 per ounce as investors sought a hard asset amid fiscal concerns.

The crypto market also saw notable gains. Bitcoin BTC/USD rose nearly 4% to reach $72,700, nearing its record high of $73,697 set in March. Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) continued its momentum with a 10% rally on Tuesday, following an 11% surge on Monday.

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY inched 0.1% higher to $581.48.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA dipped 0.3% to $422.93.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ rose 0.7% to $498.73.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM fell 0.7% to $221.01.
• The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK outperformed, up by 1.1%. The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU lagged, down 1.7%.

Stocks reacting to earnings reports included:

• McDonalds Corp. MCD, down 0.4%,
• Pfizer Inc. PFE, down 1.7%,
• PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, down over 4%,
• Ecolab Inc. ECL, down 1%,
• Enterprise Product Partner L.P. EPD down 0.3%,
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. RCL up 3.5%,
• D.R. Horton DHI, down 8.6%,
• Phillips 66 PSX, down 3.9%,
• MSCI Inc. MSCI, down 1.5%,
• Corning Inc. GLW, up 7.8%,
• Ford Motor Co. F, down 8%,
• SoFi Technologies Inc. SOFI, down 6.3%,
• Incyte Corp. SWK, up 9.4%

Among large-cap companies slated to report earnings after the close are Alphabet, Advanced Micro Devices, Visa Inc. V, Stryker Corp. SYK, Chubb Ltd. CB, Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ, Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG and Electronic Arts Inc. EA.

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