A trader works as the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpasses the 50,000 mark on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Feb. 6, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its winning streak on Tuesday as investors moved into software stocks and more value-oriented areas of the market.
The 30-stock Dow rose 227 points, or 0.5%, receiving a boost from entertainment name Disney and financial stock American Express. The index had scored its third consecutive intraday record earlier in the day, a move that comes after it surpassed the 50,000 level for the first time ever last week. The S&P 500 traded up 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite hovered around the flatline.
The broader market was supported by gains in software — a group that led the market sell-off last week as concerns grew among investors that artificial intelligence could disrupt the industry. Stabilization in the sector in the wake of the recent pressure could ease fears the bull market is breaking down.
In the space, Datadog bounced 16%, while ServiceNow moved higher by 3%. Unity shares jumped 4% after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to outperform from perform, citing accelerating revenue growth and margin expansion this year
Microsoft advanced more than 1%, aiding the Dow’s outperformance, and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) — which entered a bear market at the end of last month — added around 2%.
“Investors seem to be willing to kind of step in and buy some of these dislocations over the last couple of weeks,” said Anthony Saglimbene, Ameriprise Financial’s chief market strategist. At the same time, there also appears to be a rotation into parts of the market that “may be more insulated from that AI trade right now” like energy, materials and industrials, he added. Those sectors are already up 19%, 15% and 12% this year, respectively.
“This broadening rally that’s been taking place over the last month, that hasn’t gone away,” the strategist said.
Under pressure Tuesday were shares of retailers Costco and Walmart, which fell more than 1% each. On Tuesday, the latest retail sales report showed that consumer spending in December was flat, missing the 0.4% monthly gain that economists polled by Dow Jones were expecting. The figure comes after a 0.6% increase recorded in November.
Investors are awaiting the big jobs report on Wednesday, and the consumer price index on Friday.
“The other component of a stretched lower- and middle-income consumer right now is how they feel about the job environment, and we know that they’re a little bit more uncertain,” Saglimbene told CNBC. “If we do see weaker-than-expected job growth in January, that could kind of strain this broadening theme a little bit.”
Wall Street is coming off a second straight day of gains as tech stocks rallied, building on their Friday comeback. The Dow in particular notched fresh highs on an intraday and closing basis. Investors are hopeful the market can sustain its upward advance after last week’s sell-off failed to meaningfully hurt the market on a technical basis.
Indeed, the S&P 500 has managed to recover support above its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, after dipping below them last week, and many asset classes are outperforming the index — bullish signals as far as traders are concerned.
