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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened higher on Tuesday, in a rebound that failed to change the predominant mood of caution ahead of the government’s September labor market report on Friday.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 156 points, or 0.5%, at 34,160 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite, which fell over 2% on Monday, had rebounded by 0.4%.
Official data released earlier showed imports into the U.S. hit a fresh record high in August, running 10% ahead of the pre-pandemic levels of two years ago, suggesting that businesses are busy building up inventories ahead of the key holiday season. The data are corroborated by an unprecedented backlog of ships waiting to enter west coast ports, notably at Los Angeles. The data are a reminder that complaints and warnings about supply chain problems come against a backdrop of demand that has been supercharged for the last year and a half by fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Among individual movers, Pepsico (NASDAQ:PEP) stock rose a relatively modest 0.9% despite raising its earnings guidance for the full year. Concern about slowing volume sales growth took the edge off an otherwise robust quarter.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) stock recovered 1.0% after falling nearly 5% on Monday on a cocktail of concerns over its worst-ever outage and its chronic weaknesses in governance, highlighted in excruciating detail by whistleblower Frances Haugen. Haugen is due to testify to the Senate that the company poses “one of the most urgent threats” to the U.S.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock ground another 1.8% higher, still enjoying the support from its record third-quarter deliveries and dismissing concerns about a $130 million punitive damages award against it after it lost a second case in four months on the treatment of black employees. A third such case is waiting for it in a California state court.
Merck stock was taking a breather after two sessions of big gains that had propelled it to its highest since the start of the pandemic. The company’s experimental drug for treating Covid-19 promises to be the first treatment for the disease that can be taken in pill form, something that could radically expand global access to protection and hasten the end of the pandemic.
