Dow Reaches New Record High But Nasdaq Gives Back Ground

After ending Monday’s session firmly in positive territory, the major U.S. stock indexes turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a notable pullback, the Dow climbed to a new record closing high.

The Dow ended the day up 133.86 points or 0.4 percent at 38,467.31, while the Nasdaq slid 118.15 points or 0.8 percent to 15,509.90. S&P 500 bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing down 2.96 points or 0.1 percent at 4,924.97.

The pullback by the Nasdaq came as traders cashed in on some of the recent strength in the tech sector ahead of the release of quarterly results from Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and software giant Microsoft (MSFT) after the close of trading.

Big-name tech companies like Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META) are also due to report quarterly results in the coming days.

Uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday may also have inspired traders to book tech-sector profits.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

Optimism about a March rate cut has faded recently, with many economists now suggesting the Fed will wait until May to begin lowering rates.

Meanwhile, the uptick by the Dow comes amid strong gains by financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

On the U.S. economic front, Labor Department released a report this morning showing an unexpected increase in job openings in the month of December.

The Labor Department said job openings rose to 9.03 million in December from an upwardly revised 8.93 million in November.

Economists had expected job openings to dip to 8.75 million in December from the 8.79 million originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by the Conference Board showed a continued improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of January.

The Conference…