The S&P 500 closed at a record high Tuesday after stocks rallied seconds before the closing bell, as investors shook off headwinds on the global trade and inflation fronts.

The broad market index gained 0.24% to a record close of 6,129.58, after touching an intraday record of 6,129.63 before the final bell. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.07% at 20,041.26, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 10 points, or 0.02%, to finish the session at 44,556.34.

Energy was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500, rising 1.9%. Halliburton and Valero Energy led the advance. Tech stocks also ticked higher.

That said, pullbacks about 1% in consumer discretionary and 1.2% for communication services weighed on the broader market. Meta Platforms closed down 2.7% and snapped a 20-day winning streak.

"Overall, the market is still trying to break out of the consolidation it's been in since early December," said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. "This week kicks off the retail portion of earnings season, but news out of Washington, especially on the tariff front, could continue to be a wild card for the markets."

Wall Street is coming off a winning week for the major averages. The Dow gained roughly 0.6% last week, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.5%. The Nasdaq rose 2.6%.

Much of last week's advance came Thursday after President Donald Trump's plan for reciprocal tariffs on countries with levies on U.S. goods soothed investors who worried the tariffs would be more stringent.

Stocks have been choppy to start the year. Investors have paid close attention to inflation data, hoping that it will continue to ease and keep the Federal Reserve on its path toward lowering rates.

"I think there's a not-zero chance that the Federal Reserve reverses course next year as inflation becomes a 2026 story," said Steve Wyett, chief investment strategist at BOK Financial. "That's not being reflected in asset values at the present time. I'm more optimistic than I am pessimistic, but I think we also need to be realistic."

Correction: The S&P 500 Index closed at a record high on Tuesday. An earlier blog post headline incorrectly described the close.

S&P 500 closes at all-time high

The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high, after touching record intraday high right before the closing bell.

The broad market index gained 0.24% to finish the session at 6,129.58. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.07% to close at 20,041.26, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 10 points, or 0.02%, to 44,556.34.

— Brian Evans

Meta poised to snap winning streak

Meta is on track to break a weekslong winning streak.

The stock tumbled nearly 4% in Tuesday's session. If that holds through session close, it would mark the megacap technology name's worst day since 2025 began.

That would also snap a 20-day winning streak for the Facebook parent. Despite Tuesday's downturn, the stock is still up more than 21% this year.

— Alex Harring, Adrian van Hauwermeiren

Energy stocks outperform on Tuesday

A strong performance for the energy sector is helping to stem Wall Street's losses elsewhere Tuesday.

The sector was up about 2% in afternoon trading, and none of the other major sectors were up even 1%, according to FactSet.

Halliburton was the top performer, adding 3%. Valero, Texas Pacific Land Corp. and SLB were also up more than 2%.

— Jesse Pound

Investors taking 'wait-and-see approach,' RBC's Calvasina says

Sideways trading in the stock market can be attributed to traders' digestion of economic policy changes from the Trump administration and the salvo of recent earnings reports, according to Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

"We think investors are taking a wait-and-see approach to the busy news flow out of Washington," Calvasina told clients. "And the stock market's desire to tread water seems justified from an earnings perspective for now."

— Alex Harring

Global equities outperform

Global equities are outperforming in 2025, even as trade fears abound.

The iShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI) is up more than 5%, outpacing the S&P 500's 4% advance. The iShares MSCI ACWI excluding U.S. (ACWX) has done even better, up nearly 8%.

— Sarah Min

Stocks making the biggest midday moves: Intel, Walgreens Boots Alliance and more

These are the stocks moving the most in midday trading:

• Intel — The chipmaker soared 10% after The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that rivals Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing are exploring potential deals that could split the company up.
• Walgreens Boots Alliance — The drugstore chain surged 11.9% after CNBC's David Faber said that the prospect buyout deal between Walgreens and private equity firm Sycamore Partners was showing signs of life.
• Nike — Shares of the athletic apparel and footwear company popped 4.5% after the company announced a new brand in partnership with Kim Kardashian's Skims shapewear company.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

22 stocks in the S&P 500 trade at new 52-week highs

During Tuesday's trading session, 22 stocks in the S&P 500 reached new 52-week highs.

Tickers that hit this milestone included:

• AT&T trading at levels not seen since March 2020
• Tapestry trading at all-time highs back to the Coach IPO in October 2000
• Bank of NY Mellon trading at all-time highs back to the merger between BNY — the first company listed on the NYSE — and Mellon Financial in 2007
• Fiserv trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in September 1986
• Goldman Sachs trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May 1999
• Deere trading at all-time high levels back through our history to 1972
• GE Aerospace trading at levels not seen since July 2001
• Keysight Technologies trading at levels not since February 2023
• Palantir Technologies trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in September 2020
• VeriSign trading at levels not seen since January 2022

On the flip side, stocks that reached new 52-week lows included Conagra Brands, General Mills, Merck and Textron.

— Christopher Hayes, Lisa Kailai Han

Weak guidance clouds strong earnings season

The fourth-quarter earnings season has shown strong growth, but guidance has been weak, according to Bank of America.

Ohsung Kwon, equity and quant strategist at Bank of America, said in a note to clients that the fourth quarter has seen the strongest earnings growth since 2021.

"385 companies (84% of S&P 500 EPS and 80% of market cap) have reported so far. Consensus EPS is 5% above where it stood on Jan 1, led by Consumer Discretionary (+11%), Industrials (+11%) and Financials (+10%)," Kwon said.

However, the strong results have been paired with twice as many below-consensus guides as above-consensus guides, according to Kwon. That has led to full-year earnings projections for 2025 taking a step down.

"2025 consensus EPS has been cut by 1% YTD to $271, in line with the typical seasonality in 2001-23 but a bigger cut vs. non-recessionary years (-0.4% on average). The cut was led by Materials (-7%), while Financials saw positive revisions YTD, +1.5%," Kwon said.

— Jesse Pound

UBS upgrades Edison International, downplays wildfire liability concern

The stock of Edison International is trading too cheaply following the California wildfires, according to UBS.

Analyst Gregg Orrill upgraded the utility stock to buy from neutral, saying that the market is currently pricing in too much negativity from the fallout of the fire damage.

"The stock has re-rated to a -52% '27 [price-to-earnings] discount following the Eaton fire. California's $21 bln wildfire fund is large enough to cover the Eaton fire so the primary concern for investors is the impact of future potential fires. What's priced in to the stock is the maximum $3.9 bln liability for repayment to the fund and sub 13% [cash from operations to debt] versus our base case Eaton fire exposure of up to $1 bln," Orrill wrote.

The utility had recently inspected some of the equipment that has been identified as a potential issue with the wildfires, Orrill said.

UBS did trim the price target on the stock to $65 per share from $69. The new target is still nearly 30% above where the stock closed Friday.

"Our $65 price target represents a -30% discount P/E which is a standard deviation below the mean P/E since early 2017," Orrill wrote.

— Jesse Pound

S&P 500 opens higher, hovers near record

The S&P 500 opened higher Tuesday and hovered near a fresh record high to start the shortened trading week.

The broad market index added 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.34%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 75 points, or 0.17%.

— Brian Evans

New York manufacturing index gains, but prices rise and confidence dims

Factory activity improved in the New York region, but inflation measures jumped and optimism dimmed, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey.

The Empire State Manufacturing Index for February climbed to 5.7, up 18 points and back into expansion territory. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a -1 reading for the index, which gauges the percentage difference between companies seeing expansion against contraction.

Shipments, unfilled orders and inventories all posted gains. However, some of the underlying gauges painted a different picture.

The prices paid index jumped to 40.2, an 11.1 point increase to its highest level in nearly two years, while prices increased to 19.6, up 10.3 points. Also, the future expectations index tumbled 15 points to 22.2, and the employment index fell 4.8 points to -3.6 amid a potential trade war from tariffs. New orders also cascaded 16.4 points lower, though were still positive at 17.8.

— Jeff Cox

See the stocks moving before the bell

These are some of the stocks making notable moves in Tuesday's premarket:

• Delta Air Lines — Shares pulled back 0.8% after a Delta flight from Minnesota to Toronto crashed on landing on Monday afternoon, resulting in at least 18 injuries.
• Southwest Airlines — Shares rose 2.4% after the carrier said Monday that it would cut 15% of its corporate workforce. CEO Bob Jordan called the move "unprecedented."
• Fluor — The engineering stock dropped 5.5% on the heels of weaker-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter and guidance for the full year.

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Barclays steps to the sidelines on Moderna

Barclays downgraded Moderna shares to equal weight from overweight, citing heightened policy uncertainties and limited clinical upside drivers.

Analyst Gena Wang also slashed her price target to $45 from $111, representing a 59% reduction. This is still 36.4% higher than where shares closed Friday.

"While we continue to believe in MRNA's differentiated RNA platform, we see limited upside to the stock in near term, given macro-environment uncertainties and vaccine policy risk in the US, as well as lack of other major clinical catalysts in near term," Wang wrote in a research note Monday.

The pharmaceutical giant has been struggling in the last year. Shares are down 20.6% in 2025 and nearly 63% over the last 12 months.

— Hakyung Kim

Asia markets traded mixed as investors assess Chinese President Xi's comments in a meeting with top executives

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled support to the country's private sector and urged businesses to "show their talents."

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended the day 0.66% lower at 8,481, after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut rates by 25 basis points to 4.1%, in line with Reuters' estimates. This marks the RBA's first rate cut in over four years.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 ended the day 0.25% higher at 39,270.40, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.31% to close at 2,775.51.

South Korea's Kospi gained 0.63% to close at 2,626.81, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.67% to 773.65.

Mainland China's CSI 300 Index lost 0.88% in choppy trading to close at 3,912.78.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.49% to close at 22,953.86, while the Hang Seng tech ended the day up 2.39% at 5,630.67, reversing course from the losses in the previous session after Xi's comments in a rare closed-door symposium.

Indian markets remained in negative territory with the Nifty 50 trading 0.28% lower, while the BSE Sensex index was down 0.21% as of 1 p.m. local time.

— Amala Balakrishner

FOMC minutes in focus this week, economist says

The Federal Reserve meeting minutes will be in the spotlight this week, as investors scrutinize just how long the central bank expects to be on hold, according to Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said repeatedly that the central bank is in "no hurry" to cut interest rates, but any clarity on the path of monetary policy will be welcomed by investors. Markets were last pricing in roughly one or two quarter-point cuts by the end of the year, according to CME Group data.

— Sarah Min

Southwest to cut 15% of corporate jobs

Southwest Airlines announced Monday it would reduce its corporate workforce by 15% in an effort to cut costs.

"This decision is unprecedented in our 53-year history, and change requires that we make difficult decisions," CEO Bob Jordan said in a news release. "We are at a pivotal moment as we transform Southwest Airlines into a leaner, faster, and more agile organization."

— Leslie Josephs

Stock futures open higher

U.S. stock futures opened higher Monday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 106 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2% and 0.2%, respectively.

— Sarah Min