The market continued its upward trajectory with all three major indexes reaching new records for a second consecutive session. Even though Q2 earnings projections are in the stratosphere, companies continue to beat them so everyday brings new surprises and more optimism. At the Fed meeting Tuesday and Wednesday everyone will be looking to see if the position of rate hikes as early as 2023 is still on the table and whether the Fed still sees inflation as temporary. Volume was a tad below average at 9.7 billion. 

MON  JULY 26, 2021  6:53 PM 

Indexes notch closing record highs as key earnings, Fed meet eyed

By Caroline Valetkevitch

DJ: 35,061.55  +238.20       NAS: 14,836.99  +152.39        S&P: 4,411.79  +44.31     7/23

DJ: 35,144.31  +82.76         NAS: 14,840.71  +3.72            S&P: 4,422.30  +10.51     7/26

NEW YORK (Reuters) - All three major U.S. stock indexes eked out record closing highs for a second straight session on Monday as investors were optimistic heading into a slew of earnings from heavyweight technology and internet names this week, while caution ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting kept the market in check.  More than one-third of the S&P 500 was set to report quarterly results this week, including Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc, the four largest U.S. companies by market value. Apple rose 0.3%.

Shares of Tesla Inc, which reported quarterly results after the market close, were up about 1% in after-hours trading. The stock ended the regular session up 2.2%.

The vast majority of second-quarter earnings have handily beaten analysts’ expectations so far, bumping up the already huge projected growth for the second quarter, according to Refinitiv data.  “We continue to see positive surprises, and even with a lot of optimism and increased estimates going into earnings season, we’re still seeing companies exceed those expectations,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York, New York.  “As we get into the heart of (the earnings season) and we get industrials and more cyclical names, it will be interesting to see not only how much there is in terms of recovery but also is there any impact from some of these issues, meaning inflation, the spike in prices.”

3M Co, up 0.6%, is due to report on Tuesday while Boeing Co, up 2%, is set to report on Wednesday.

A two-day meeting of the Fed starts on Tuesday, and all eyes may be on whether the central bank expresses any new concerns about high inflation when it concludes its gathering on Wednesday.  In June, the Fed indicated it may start raising rates two times in 2023, which was sooner than previously expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 82.76 points, or 0.24%, to 35,144.31, the S&P 500 gained 10.51 points, or 0.24%, to 4,422.3 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.72 points, or 0.03%, to 14,840.71.  Continued optimism over second-quarter earnings has helped offset recent concerns over the market impact of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

U.S.-listed Chinese shares fell after Beijing last week announced new rules on private tutoring and online education firms, the latest in a series of crackdowns on the technology sector that have roiled financial markets.  E-commerce company Alibaba Group and search engine Baidu Inc, two of the largest Chinese stocks listed in the United States, were lower. Alibaba fell 7.2% and Baidu dropped 6%.  Recent losses in Chinese stocks have been steeper than those recorded during the height of the Sino-U.S. trade war in 2018, mainly due to Beijing’s targeting of large technology firms.  Among other decliners, weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp fell 3.3% after a classified aeronautics development program caused the firm to miss profit estimates.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.77 billion shares, compared with the 9.82 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.28-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted 47 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 77 new highs and 160 new lows.