Nasdaq hits record high; IBM weighs on Dow

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq hit a record intraday high on Tuesday, extending its run as healthcare stocks rose for the sixth straight session, while a jump in banks lifted the S&P 500.

The Dow, however, was weighed down by a 1.8 percent decline in IBM and a 0.7 percent loss in Goldman Sachs .

Investors are focussing on the earnings season, which kicks off this week, to assess whether fourth-quarter corporate performance justifies Wall Street's record levels.

"We've shifted from that exuberance post the election and the rotation into some of the sectors and now we are entering a wait-and-see mode with earnings knocking at the front door," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Equity Capital Markets in News York.

 

"Earnings may be the pivot to move things higher."

S&P 500 companies are set to post their strongest quarterly growth in three years, with earnings estimated to have risen 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter, mainly driven by financials, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

At 14:06 p.m. ET (1906 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was down 27.85 points, or 0.14 percent, at 19,859.53 and the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 1.11 points, or 0.04 percent, at 2,270.01.

The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 13.88 points, or 0.25 percent, at 5,545.70, easing from a life high of 5,564.25 - its third straight record since Friday.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 0.76 percent gain in financials <.SPSY>.

JPMorgan , Bank of America and Wells Fargo scheduled to report results on Friday. Bank of America and Wells Fargo were up about 2 percent.

Healthcare stocks <.SPXHC> gained 0.62 percent and the Nasdaq biotech index <.NBI> was 0.75 percent higher, both up for the sixth session in a row.

General Motors rose 3.7 percent to $37.38 after the No.1 U.S. automaker forecast 2017 profit above analysts' expectations.

Illumina surged 17.4 percent to $166.08 after the diagnostics company gave a strong quarterly forecast and launched a new product.

Zimmer Biomet rose 6.6 percent to $114.07 after the orthopedics company said it expects fourth-quarter net sales well above analysts' expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,747 to 1,137. On the Nasdaq, 1,716 issues rose and 1,085 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 11 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 74 new highs and 17 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)