Stocks charged ahead Tuesday following last week's big gains, and the advance showed good breadth once again.
Plastics, hospital, fiber-optic, automaker and chip-equipment stocks jumped the highest. Yet buying was strong in some defensive areas of Wall Street as well, as confectionery, gas distribution and long-term medical care stocks also rallied 1% or more.
The S&P 500 rallied 0.6%, adding to last week's 1.5% rise, its fourth weekly gain in a row. The Dow Jones industrial average lifted nearly 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite almost 0.5%. The Russell 2000, a popular small-cap benchmark, rolled more than 0.7% higher and is now up 3.9% since Jan. 1.
Volume edged slightly higher on the NYSE vs. Friday and rose a little more sharply on the Nasdaq. Such turnover increases are impressive considering that Friday was a witching day in which weekly and monthly options expired, tending to boost turnover.
Winners thumped losers on the NYSE by more than a 2-to-1 margin on Tuesday, while on the Nasdaq the margin was still bullish at roughly 4-to-3.
Home Depot (HD), which reported yet another quarter of double-digit EPS growth (up 23% in the January ended quarter), rose 2.02 to 145.02 and is now 5.5% past a 137.42 saucer-with-handle entry. Revenue rose 6% to $22.2 billion, repeating a 6% increase in the fiscal third quarter that ended in October.
As noted in this earnings review by IBD news reporter Bill Peters, Home Depot was able to increase its profit by a faster rate than sales thanks to its continued shareholder-friendly action of heavily buying back shares. Management also hiked its cash payout to shareholders by 29% to 89 cents per quarter and approved a new $15 billion share buyback plan.
Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Priceline Group (PCLN) and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) are also rising further past recent proper entry points.
Advanced Micro, fierce rival to Intel (INTC) in the personal-computer core processors space, gapped up at Tuesday's open and roared 6.6% higher to 14, nearly clearing a two-week pause. The stock with a $13 billion market cap, putting it squarely in the midcap to big-cap range, has acted very well since propelling past a 7.63 low-priced base breakout.
Notice on a daily chart how AMD found bullish buying support during a nearly three-week dalliance with its fast-rising 50-day moving average. AMD lost money in both 2015 and 2016, but Wall Street expects a turnaround in earnings (7 cents in 2017, then 27 cents in 2018).
AMD's RS Rating is a maximum 99 on a scale of 1 to 99.
Intuitive, the pioneer in robotic surgery, rose 1% to 732.17 in heavy trading and rolled mildly past a 727.35 cup-base buy point. One could also see, on a daily chart, the stock forming a narrow five-day handle that started on Jan. 26, yielding an early entry at 700.52.
Given Intuitive's slower moves vs. its hypergrowth years in the mid-2000s, it's not at all surprising to see the RS Rating be a middling 66 and the RS line still off its recent highs. However, that "middling" 66 RS is a vast improvement from a lowly 27 just 8 weeks ago.
A 66 RS means Intuitive is now outperforming two-thirds of all companies in IBD's stock database over the past 12 months. The RS Rating puts a greater weighting on the latest three months' worth of action.
Also, the company continues to post steady top- and bottom-line growth. In the past five quarters, sales have risen 12%, 12%, 14%, 16% and 12% vs. year-ago levels. In Q4, revenue eclipsed the $750 million mark.
Meanwhile, Intuitive's medical systems and equipment group ranks a not-too-shabby 54th out of 197 industry groups for six-month relative price performance.
See the entire list of 197 industry groups here or by going to the IBD Data Tables section inside "Stock Lists" at Investors.com.
Apple (AAPL), one of the top performing megacap stocks so far in 2017, added 0.7% to 136.67, rising further past a 118.12 cup-with-handle buy point. It broke out initially in dull volume on Jan. 6-9.
Apple is also up more than 23% since it cleared an initial cup with handle with a 110.33 entry on Sept. 14.
Holders would not be wrong at all in taking at least some profits, based on the 20%-to-25% sell rule, which helps savvy investors capture gains during a stock's upside.
Of course, those with supreme conviction in Apple may decide to be patient and hold longer. Indeed, some leading names are capable of rising 30% to 40% before staging a significant price correction. These corrections are the genesis of new bases during a confirmed market uptrend.
U.S. equities are not rising alone. Chinese stocks have risen sharply in the past few sessions. Through Tuesday's trade, the mainland China-focused Shanghai Composite gained nearly 1.6% over two straight sessions; at 3253, the composite stood up a hearty 4.6% year to date.
And despite fears of escalating tension between North Korea and its neighbors over continued nuclear tests, Japan's Nikkei 225 index bounced off its 50-day moving average in the past two sessions as it staged a 0.7% overnight on Tuesday.
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