S&P 500 hits record high as corporate earnings roll in; Medicare rates hit insurers

The S&P 500 touched a record high ‌and ​angled for its fifth advance in a row ‌on Tuesday with a mixed reception for the latest earnings reports and a steep selloff in health insurers countering ​optimism ahead of megacap reports.

UnitedHealth led losses in healthcare stocks and in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a 19% tumble after the Trump administration proposed an increase in ‍Medicare insurer payment rates. The plan was another woe ​added to the insurer’s disappointing revenue forecast for 2026. Also sliding were insurance peers Humana down about 19% and CVS, which fell about 14%.

In more encouraging earnings ​news, bellwether United Parcel Service projected higher revenue for 2026, and rose more than 3% while rival FedEx added 2.5%. Results from parcel carriers are often used as a key barometer to gauge U.S. economic health. General Motors shares advanced 9% after it reported higher fourth‑quarter core profit.

And with megacap earnings reports due to kick off this week, technology stocks extended Monday’s gains, with Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon and Broadcom providing some of the market’s biggest boosts.

With this, the Nasdaq touched a ‌near three-month high while the S&P 500 neared the 7,000 mark.

“There’s a little bit of a bifurcated market today with the Dow down because ​of ‌the announcements around Medicare premiums,” Phil ‍Blancato, chief market strategist at ⁠Osaic Wealth in New York. “When you look at everything else, the market seems to be hanging in there waiting for a big week of earnings.”

Also on Tuesday, U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in January, slumping to its lowest level since 2014, but Blancato noted that surprisingly, the “pretty terrible number” didn’t have much of an impact on the stock market.

At 2:29 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 430.54 points, or 0.87%, to 48,981.58, the S&P 500 gained 34.97 points, or 0.50%, to 6,985.20 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 241.40 points, or 1.02%, to 23,843.00.

The broader technology sector rose 1.7% while Corning led the gains there jumping 16%. The Gorilla Glass maker signed a deal with Meta worth up to $6 ​billion for fiber-optic cables in AI data centers.

Meta, Microsoft and Tesla report earnings on Wednesday, kicking off results from the so‑called “Magnificent Seven”, which will test the AI trade that has underpinned Wall Street’s rally for much of the past year.

Markets pushed ‌higher ​on Tuesday despite a fresh tariff threat from U.S. President Donald ‌Trump, this time against South Korea. Investors appear more focussed on the red-hot tech sector and AI boom as they await a slew of ​mega-cap earnings this week.

But lingering caution also reared its head as gold and silver held firm on continued global uncertainty, and the dollar remained under pressure amid continued concerns about coordinated intervention to boost the yen.

I’ll get into all ‍that and more below.

But first, check out my latest column ​on why globalization may well forge ahead without the U.S.

And listen to the latest episode of the Morning Bid daily podcast. Subscribe to hear Reuters journalists discuss the biggest news in markets and finance seven days a ​week.

Bourses around ⁠the world appeared to shrug off a fresh tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday as shares hit new record highs, with mega-caps Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla due to report on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 ended 0.5% higher on Monday and futures were higher ahead of Tuesday’s open, while the Nikkei and even South Korea’s KOSPI also rose.

The South Korean exchange’s rise – which took it to a new high – came as the country found itself the latest target of Trump’s hammer-and-nail trade policy. Trump announced on Monday that he would hike tariffs on imported South Korean goods to 25% from 15%. ‌He blamed the move on the South Korean parliament’s apparent failure to quickly implement a pact agreed last year with President Lee Jae Myung to boost investment in U.S. business projects.

While equity ​investors’ ‌attention was focused elsewhere, the potential for yet ‍more trade disruption helped keep gold and silver elevated ⁠on Tuesday morning, while the greenback remained under pressure after a torrid Monday which saw the dollar index’s biggest three-day slide since last April.

The dollar index slipped further after edging higher briefly on Tuesday, while Japan’s yen held its best levels of the year on continued speculation about joint U.S.-Japan action to prop it up ahead of next month’s Japanese snap election.