Stocks Opened Moderately Higher

U.S. stocks opened moderately higher on Tuesday, bouncing a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 suffered their biggest one-day percentage decline in two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 41.41 points, or 0.15%, to 28,002.21. The S&P 500 was up 2.29 points, or 0.07%, to 3,228.18. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 23.03 points, or 0.25%, to 9,244.31.

Oil futures remained under pressure Tuesday, seeing modest losses a day after worries about the spread of COVID-19 outside China sent crude tumbling. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery fell 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $51.32 a barrel. May Brent crude dropped 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.52 a barrel.

Home prices in the U.S. ended 2019 on a high note. Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index posted a 3.8% annual gain in December, up from 3.5% a month earlier and the fifth month of home price growth acceleration.

Department store chain Macy’s Inc (M) on Tuesday reported a small drop in sales and profit that topped analysts’ expectations with the help of an uptick in holiday sales. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $2.12 per share, beating the average estimate of $1.96. Net sales fell 1.4% to $8.34 billion, but were a touch above analysts’ estimate of $8.32 billion.