US STOCKS-S&P 500 hits record high as corporate earnings roll in; Medicare rates hit insurers

By Sinéad Carew and Pranav Kashyap

Jan 27 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 touched a record high and angled for its fifth advance in a row on Tuesday with a mixed reception for the latest earnings reports and a steep selloff in health insurers countering optimism ahead of megacap reports.

UnitedHealth UNH.N led losses in healthcare stocks and in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI with a 19% tumble after the Trump administration proposed an increase in Medicare insurer payment rates. The plan was another woe added to the insurer's disappointing revenue forecast for 2026. Also sliding were insurance peers Humana HUM.N down about 19% and CVS CVS.N, which fell about 14%.

In more encouraging earnings news, bellwether United Parcel Service UPS.N projected higher revenue for 2026, and rose more than 3% while rival FedEx FDX.N added 2.5%. Results from parcel carriers are often used as a key barometer to gauge U.S. economic health. General Motors GM.N shares advanced 9% after it reported higher fourth‑quarter core profit.

And with megacap earnings reports due to kick off this week, technology stocks extended Monday's gains, with Microsoft MSFT.O, Nvidia NVDA.O, Apple AAPL.O, Amazon AMZN.O and Broadcom AVGO.O providing some of the market's biggest boosts.

With this, the Nasdaq touched a near three-month high while the S&P 500 neared the 7,000 mark.

"There's a little bit of a bifurcated market today with the Dow down because of the announcements around Medicare premiums," Phil Blancato, chief market strategist at Osaic Wealth in New York. "When you look at everything else, the market seems to be hanging in there waiting for a big week of earnings."

Also on Tuesday, U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in January, slumping to its lowest level since 2014, but Blancato noted that surprisingly, the "pretty terrible number" didn't have much of an impact on the stock market.

At 2:29 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 430.54 points, or 0.87%, to 48,981.58, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 34.97 points, or 0.50%, to 6,985.20 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 241.40 points, or 1.02%, to 23,843.00.

The broader technology sector .SPLRCT rose 1.7% while Corning GLW.N led the gains there jumping 16%. The Gorilla Glass maker signed a deal with Meta worth up to $6 billion for fiber-optic cables in AI data centers.

Meta META.O, Microsoft and Tesla TSLA.O report earnings on Wednesday, kicking off results from the so‑called "Magnificent Seven", which will test the AI trade that has underpinned Wall Street's rally for much of the past year.

In total, 102 S&P 500 companies are set to post earnings results this week. Of the 64 that had reported as of Friday, 79.7% have topped analyst expectations, as per data compiled by LSEG.

Elsewhere in earnings, trading in Boeing BA.N was choppy after it swung to a fourth-quarter profit due to a unit sale but reported bigger than expected losses in its two biggest divisions. Its shares were last down 2% after rising more than 2% earlier.

But in airlines, American Airlines AAL.O fell 5.7% with the weekend's winter storm expected to weigh on its first-quarter results while its 2026 profit forecast topped estimates. JetBlue JBLU.O tumbled about 8% on a wider‑than‑expected quarterly loss citing inclement weather and the government shutdown last fall.

FED WATCH

Investors were also waiting to hear from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which begins its two‑day policy meeting on Tuesday, with investors broadly expecting the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged.

Attention will be on policymakers' guidance, with traders alert to any signals around the Fed's leadership outlook.

"We're looking at who the dissenters might be from a voting perspective which will give insights to see how much consensus there is among members around the state of the economy," said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.