3M, GM, Blue Chips Lead to the Upside: Stock Market Today

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The main U.S. equity indexes were mixed a day after all three posted gains of greater than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average did hit a new high on an intraday basis, led by an old-school industrial stock, as markets digested more solid earnings and healthy guidance amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Eight of the 11 official sectors closed in the red. Communication services stocks were among the collective losers, even though Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD, +11.0%) surged on takeover talk. And sector bellwether Netflix (NFLX, +0.2%) posted a modest gain ahead of its turn on the earnings calendar after Tuesday's closing bell.

Noting the significance of recent gains and a minor pullback early in the day, Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates notes that all three main indexes were holding gains for the trailing week. The Russell 2000 was in the red for the trailing week, but the index of small-cap stocks was with the others in the green for the trailing month.

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"Earnings continue to come in strong," Navellier writes, looking forward to Netflix as well as Tesla (TSLA, -1.1%), International Business Machines (IBM, -0.6%) and AT&T (T, -0.3%) on Wednesday.

By Tuesday's closing bell, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% to 46,924 after rising to a new intraday high of 47,125.66. The broad-based S&P 500 was higher by 0.2 points at 6,735, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2% at 22,953.

Blue chips post solid earnings, healthy guidance

3M (MMM, +7.7%) was No. 1 among Dow Jones stocks after management reported expectations-beating earnings per share for the third quarter.

The Post-It maker generated EPS of $2.19 (+10.6% year over year), topping a Wall Street forecast of $2.07, while revenue was in line with the consensus estimate at $6.3 billion (+3.5% YoY). 3M also raised its full-year EPS guidance to a range of $7.95 to $8.05 from $7.75 to $8.

CEO William Brown cited renewed "focus on reinvigorating organic top-line growth and improving operational performance," noting that "this progress gives us the confidence to raise our full-year margin and EPS guidance."

Coca-Cola (KO, +4.1%) joined 3M at the top of the list of 30 Dow stocks on the strength of top- and bottom-line beats and a confident full-year outlook.

One of the best stocks to buy for the long term, KO posted sales of $12.5 billion (+5.1% YoY) and EPS of 82 cents (+6.5% YoY), exceeding Wall Street estimates of $12.4 billion and 75 cents.

"While the overall environment has continued to be challenging, we've stayed flexible," said CEO James Quincey in a statement. "We're confident we can deliver on our 2025 guidance while also working to achieve our longer-term objectives."

GM tops them all

General Motors (GM, +14.8%) was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average following the blue-chip automaker's historic bankruptcy declaration amid the Great Recession back in June 2009. But the consumer discretionary stock was better than all 30 of the benchmark's current components on Tuesday on expectations-beating third-quarter results.

GM reported an operating profit of $3.1 billion on revenue of $48.6 billion vs Wall Street estimates of $2.7 billion and $45 billion, respectively. And management raised its 2025 guidance for operating profit to $12 billion to $13 billion from $10 billion to $12.5 billion.

Management also trimmed its forecast for the full-year impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs by $500 million to a range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion. And its comeback will include another record profit for the full year if GM meets the top end of current guidance at $15.7 billion.

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David Dittman is the former managing editor and chief investment strategist of Utility Forecaster, which was named one of "10 investment newsletters to read besides Buffett's" in 2015. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, and the Villanova University School of Law, and a former stockbroker, David has been working in financial media for more than 20 years.