Wall Street: Gains are capped by rising bond rates and Middle East concerns, but the Dow is up due to a lift from UnitedHealth

Wall Street: Gains are capped by rising bond rates and Middle East concerns, but the Dow is up due to a lift from UnitedHealth

At the opening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 257.11 points, or 0.68%, to 37,992.22.

At the opening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 257.11 points, or 0.68%, to 37,992.22.

Following positive earnings from health insurer UnitedHealth, the Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed its rivals on Tuesday. However, investors remained cautious due to rising Treasury rates and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.

UnitedHealth Group, a component of the Dow, increased 5.9% as its first-quarter adjusted earnings above forecasts.

Other health insurers had gains of 0.3% to 1.2%, including Humana, CVS Health, and Centene.

The rebound in investment banking helped Morgan Stanley gain 2.4% after exceeding first-quarter earnings projections.

"It was a wonderful morning for earnings announcements. However, the market is primarily looking for a bottom after its recent sell-off, according to Cherry Lane Investments partner Rick Meckler.

In reality, the expectation of reduced rates was what drove the larger market gain. Additionally, individual stock selection based on performance seems to have replaced index purchasing, at least for the time being."

Amidst international pressure to prevent further escalation in Middle East conflicts, Israel's war cabinet was scheduled to convene for a third time in three days, according to an official. The purpose of the meeting was to determine how to respond to Iran's first-ever direct strike.

The 10-year government bond's yield, US10YT=RR, reached new five-month highs the day before, which further suggested that the U.S. economy had a strong first quarter. Data also showed that U.S. retail sales grew more than anticipated in March due to a spike in payments at online retailers.

During the day, a number of officials, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, will be speaking, and investors will be observing to see whether the central bank will be relaxing its stance on policy.

If inflation does not drop down as anticipated, Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said that "it will be appropriate to hold in place the current restrictive stance of policy for longer".

According to LSEG data, investors drastically revised their estimates of the extent to which the Fed will lower rates this year, and as a result, U.S. stocks have lately dropped down. Bets currently indicate just around 42 basis points of projected easing. From around 150 bps at the beginning of the year, this is lower.

Real estate subject to rates.Utility and SPLRCR.With each sectoral loss of around 1%, SPLRCU led the way.

At 9:48 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 was down 13.26 points, or 0.26%, at 5,048.56, the Nasdaq Composite was down 47.18 points, or 0.30%, at 15,837.84, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 87.56 points, or 0.23%, at 37,822.67.

Among other companies, Tesla fell 3.7% after a plunge of more than 5% in the previous session, following the revelation by Reuters of an internal letter indicating the electric vehicle manufacturer was laying off nearly 10% of its personnel worldwide.

Johnson & Johnson's stock dropped 2.0% after the pharmaceutical company's first-quarter earnings below analysts' projections due to lower-than-expected sales of its popular psoriasis treatment, Stelara.

On the NYSE, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 5.70 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, the ratio was 3.50 to 1.

The Nasdaq had nine new highs and 189 new lows, while the S&P index saw no new 52-week highs and six new lows.