Stocks gave up the majority of their earlier gains and closed only modestly higher on Tuesday, as a lack of first-tier economic data and light trading volume limited movement in the equity markets. The major averages still all closed in positive territory, setting fresh highs on the one-year anniversary of the historic March lows.
Trader focus was largely honed in on the day's corporate news amid the absence of additional clues on the state of the economy.
Networking giant Cisco (CSCO) unveiled a high-capacity router, the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System, tripling the capacity of its previous high end router to 322 terabits per second.
The router is capable of handling traffic at a speed 12 times greater, while consuming 60 percent less power than the nearest competing systems.
Also in corporate news, television service firm TiVo Inc. (TIVO) reported a wider net loss for the fourth quarter, hurt by lower subscription additions and higher operating expenses. Looking ahead, the company also provided first quarter revenue guidance below current estimates.
Meanwhile, chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) raised the low end of its first quarter revenue and earnings guidance, with the mid-points of the new ranges coming in above analysts' current consensus estimates.
The second-largest U.S. oil company, Chevron Corp. (CVX) said it would cut around 2,000 jobs by 2011 and sell some of its downstream operations, including the Pembroke refinery in the U.K., in an effort to streamline its loss-making downstream portfolio.
In other news, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington behind closed doors, urging the U.S. to play a role in stopping "unprincipled speculators" from aggravating the Greek debt problems.
The major averages saw some upside in late day dealing after threatening to close lower on the day. The Dow gained 11.86 points or 0.1 percent to end at 10,564.38, the Nasdaq advanced by 8.47 points or 0.4 percent to 2,340.68 and the S&P 500 rose by 1.94 points or 0.2 percent to 1,140.44.
Sector News
Airline, trucking and railroad stocks were some of the day's strongest performers, as the price of crude oil, which impacts fuel costs within the sectors, saw a down day. Light sweet crude for April delivery settled $0.38 lower at $81.49 per barrel.
Notably, the NYSE Arca Airline Index rose by 2.9 percent, led higher by shares of UAL Corp. (UAUA) after its subsidiary United Airlines reported a pickup in February traffic.
Defense stocks also rose by sizable margins, as reflected by the 1 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Defense Sector Index. With the gain, the index ended the day at its best closing level in nearly eighteen months.
Banking, networking and commercial real estate stocks also advanced, while health insurance stocks weighed on the markets. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor Index declined by 0.8 percent, moving further off of Friday's one-month closing high.
Dow Components
United Technologies (UTX) led the Dow higher on a percentage basis, climbing by 1.4 percent. Shares of the diversified conglomerate closed at their best price in roughly six weeks.
General Electric (GE) saw a comparable gain, rising by 1.4 percent. The stock ended today's session at its best price in just over a month.
AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and 3M (MMM) also saw buying interest, while Merck (MRK) declined by 0.8 percent. Fellow pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (PFE) also fell, extending its recent pullback and closing at a four-month low.
Alcoa (AA), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Coca-Cola (KO) also declined, limiting the upside for the blue chip index.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed on a mixed note on Tuesday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.1 percent.
The major European markets also saw a mixed outing. The German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both rose by 0.2 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.
In the bond markets, treasuries closed little changed despite today's strong three-year bond auction. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note closed at 3.701 percent, falling by less than a basis point.
Looking Ahead
Wednesday, the markets are likely to focus on wholesale trade figures for January as well as the Treasury budget for February, which is expected to show another deficit.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.