Stock Market Today: Rally Extends on Good-Enough Expectations

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Stocks opened in the green and trended higher most of Tuesday. Familiar technology names led the Nasdaq Composite back into positive territory for the year to date, but tickers from multiple sectors and industries put up solid gains too.

Markets remain focused on Washington, D.C., with the Senate returning from recess to debate President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" and its trillions of dollars in tax cuts.

Today, it was mostly quiet on the trade war front ahead of tomorrow's deadline set by the White House for countries to submit their best offers on tariffs and potential U.S. investment.

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Solid incoming labor market data ahead of Jobs Friday also provided some lift.

Nvidia (NVDA) led Dow Jones stocks with a gain of 2.8% that added $94 billion to its market capitalization and pushed it past Mag 7 peer Microsoft (MSFT) for the top spot there too.

Reactions to Nvidia's fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings and commentary continue, with Jefferies adding NVDA to its "Franchise Picks" of top stocks to buy now on Tuesday. Analyst Blayne Curtis has a Buy rating and a $185 12-month price target on NVDA stock.

UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri reiterated his Buy rating and $175 price target, noting that management foreshadowed "tens of gigawatts" of AI infrastructure projects in the "not-too-distant future" during its conference call last week.

The yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury note was up to 3.953% from 3.945% Monday. Longer-dated Treasuries were lower, with the 10-year down to 4.452% from 4.462% and the 30-year at 4.977% from 4.995%.

As of the closing bell, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 0.5% to 42,519, the broader S&P 500 was up 0.6% at 5,970, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had rallied 0.8% to 19,398.

Is Dollar General a "safe-haven from tariffs"?

Dollar General (DG) rallied 16% after beating Wall Street expectations for its fiscal first quarter and raising its full-year guidance.

The consumer staples stock posted earnings of $1.78 per share on revenue of $10.4 billion vs a consensus forecast of EPS of $1.48 on revenue of $10.3 billion. Same-store sales were up 2.4% year over year.

Dollar General reported market-share gains in essentials such as food and cleaning supplies, as well as discretionary items such as plates, decor and clothing.

Management raised its full-year same-store sales growth guidance from a range of 1.2% to 2.2% to a range of 1.5% to 2.5%.

Citi analyst Paul Lejuez writes that because Dollar General is seen as a safe haven from tariffs, expectations for the quarter were high.

"But we believe that the results were good enough to drive shares higher," the analyst concludes. Lejuez rates DG at Neutral (or "Hold"), with a $101 12-month price target.

Fellow discount retailer Dollar Tree (DLTR), which added 6%, takes its turn on the earnings calendar before Wednesday's opening bell.

More stocks on the move

Broadcom (AVGO) surged 3.3% and hit a new all-time high amid a broad rally for semiconductor stocks. The custom chipmaker reports fiscal 2025 second-quarter results before Thursday's opening bell.

Tesla (TSLA) was up as much as 3.7% and closed 0.5% higher on reports that the debut of its robotaxi is imminent. The consumer discretionary stock has struggled this year with competition in its core markets and a CEO who has had his attention elsewhere.

Boeing (BA) got a tariffs-and-trade-war bounce. The industrial stock climbed 1% after BofA Securities analyst Ronald Epstein upgraded it to Buy and raised his 12-month price target from $185 to $260.

"Boeing aircraft have emerged as a favored trade mechanism in recent U.S. trade negotiations," Epstein writes, "which we suspect will continue."

Constellation Energy Group (CEG) was off 0.1% after the utility signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Meta Platforms (META) for its Clinton Clean Energy Center nuclear plant in Illinois.

Meanwhile, plumbing and heating supplies distributor Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) posted a 17.3% gain after it exceeded Wall Street estimates for its fiscal third-quarter sales and earnings and boosted its full-year guidance.

A JOLTS of stability

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said job openings increased to 7.391 million in April from 7.200 million in March.

Hires and total separations were little changed at 5.573 million vs 5.404 million and 5.288 million vs 5.183 million. Quits and layoffs and discharges were little changed as well, according to the BLS.

The job opening rate increased to 4.4% in April from 4.3% in March, while the hires rate increased to 3.5% from 3.4%. The total separations rate was unchanged at 3.3%.

"Job openings were stronger than expected in April compared to March of this year," notes Raymond James Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán. "The job opening number continues to show relative stability in the U.S. labor market."

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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.