NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed mixed on Tuesday amid strong corporate earnings and a retreat in oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 529.85 points, or 1.02 percent, to 52,495.88. The S&P 500 added 21.84 points, or 0.28 percent, to 7,712.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 6.07 points, or 0.02 percent, to 26,424.82.
Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with health care and real estate leading the gainers by adding more than 2 percent and 1.69 percent, respectively, followed by utilities. Meanwhile, information technology and communication services lagged, with the tech sector wavering near the flatline.
U.S. Treasury yields eased on Tuesday as weak housing data cooled expectations of near-term Federal Reserve rate hikes. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slipped below 5.12 percent, down about 2 basis points from Monday's close, while the 30-year yield eased toward 5.4 percent.
Oil prices retreated on hopes of U.S.-Iran diplomacy after reports that mediators had presented a proposal to revive peace talks between the two countries. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell nearly 2 percent to 101.79 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, slipped 0.69 percent to 108.79 dollars a barrel.
"Investors are just taking a little bit more comfort and rotating out of those [AI] stocks and into areas that have done a little bit better more recently," said Patrick Ryan, chief investment strategist of Madison Investments, describing Tuesday's rotation into small caps and defensive stocks.
On the corporate front, 3M surged 5.78 percent to lead the Dow after reporting third-quarter earnings of 2.5 dollars per share that beat expectations, raising its full-year outlook, and expanding a data-center partnership that grants Amazon warrants for 3.2 million shares after the tech giant spent 6 billion dollars on 3M connectivity products.
Eli Lilly climbed 3.49 percent on metabolic drug pipeline advancements, and UnitedHealth added about 3 percent, while Hasbro surged 11.2 percent past a buy point.
On the downside, General Motors tumbled almost 7 percent despite beating quarterly profit expectations after issuing a disappointing full-year outlook, while GE Aerospace fell 3.67 percent and Steel Dynamics dropped on an earnings miss.
Alphabet and Apple each fell more than 1 percent, while Tesla rose about 1.5 percent ahead of its earnings report. Netflix and SpaceX were set to report after the close, with Meta and Tesla scheduled for Wednesday.
On the economic front, pending home sales plunged 7.3 percent month over month in September, the lowest since the series began in 2001 and far worse than the 0.4-percent decline expected, the National Association of Realtors reported.
