By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow inched higher Tuesday, led by Zoom-infused rally as investors bet that big tech will continue to rack up gains a day after stocks notched their best monthly performance in more than three decades.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.54%, or 153 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.58%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.28% to remain on course for another record close.
Technology stocks continued their rich vein of form, making a strong start to the month thanks to a 40% surge in Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) after the video conference software maker reported quarterly earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates.
"With the company [Zoom Video Communications] firing on all cylinders, we're bullish on its video-centered value proposition and concede that we underestimated its near-term growth potential," Oppenheimer said.
In other news, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) was up more than 7% after launching its expedited delivery service, Walmart+, a direct competitor to Amazon's Prime service.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), meanwhile, rose more than 2% to a record high, leading the move higher in the Fab 5 stocks, with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the green.
Investor sentiment on stocks was also supported by signs the economic recovery remains on track as coronavirus infections across to the U.S. continued to slow.
The ISM Manufacturing Index improved to 56.0 from 54.2 in August, topping economists' forecasts for a reading of 54.5.
"We remain confident that manufacturing will be more resilient to COVID-related developments than the service side of the economy, and activity should continue to expand in coming quarters as the recovery takes hold," Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said.
Energy, however, remained sluggish for a second-straight day, shrugging off a climb in oil prices, paced by a decline in Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP).