Equity Markets Close Higher After Latest Earnings, Macro Data

US benchmark equity indexes rose Tuesday, as investors assessed the latest batch of corporate earnings and economic data.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.6% to 15,696.6, while the S&P 500 gained 1.2% to 5,070.6. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 38,503.7. Barring materials, all sectors closed higher, led by communication services and technology.

In company news, Globe Life GL shares surged 14.8%, the top gainer on the S&P 500. The company late Monday posted higher first-quarter net operating income and revenue from a year earlier.

PepsiCo PEP logged better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results aided by price increases, even though certain product recalls weighed substantially on the beverage and snacks company's Quaker Foods business in North America. The company's shares dropped 3%, the worst performer on the Nasdaq.

Nucor's NUE stock slid 8.9%, among the steepest declines on the S&P 500. The steelmaker late Monday forecast a sequential decrease in short-term profit, while its fiscal first-quarter results declined annually and trailed Wall Street's expectations.

Tech giants Microsoft MSFT, Google parent Alphabet GOOG, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms META are scheduled to report their latest financial results later this week.

The US two-year yield dropped 3.8 basis points to 4.93% Tuesday, while the 10-year rate lost 1.8 basis points to 4.6%.

In economic news, new single-family home sales in the US climbed 8.8% on a monthly basis in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 693,000 from the previous month's downwardly revised print of 637,000, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Analysts expected sales to come in at the 668,000 level, which would have marked a 0.9% growth from the unrevised print, according to a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

Manufacturing activity in the US Mid-Atlantic region recovered more than expected this month as demand improved but remained in contraction territory, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond said.

US private-sector growth slowed more than expected in April as new orders fell for the first time in six months, while business confidence dropped to the lowest since November, according to S&P Global's (SPGI) flash purchasing managers' index.

"The US economic upturn lost momentum at the start of the second quarter, with the flash PMI survey respondents reporting below-trend business activity growth in April," S&P Global Market Intelligence Chief Business Economist Chris Williamson said. "Further pace may be lost in the coming months."

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 1.7% to $83.32 per barrel Tuesday.

Gold fell 0.4% to $2,336.60 per troy ounce, while silver rose 0.4% to $27.64 per ounce.