Equities Climb on Thin Volume | Closing Bell

Market Performance - S&P 500 closed fractionally above its record high of July 3rd at 627935 [1][2] - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by about 4/10 of 1% [5] - The Nasdaq Composite closed up a tenth of a percent [5] - The Russell 2000 was up 5/10 of 1% [6] - 352 names in the S&P 500 gained ground, while 149 declined [7] - Nine sectors in the S&P 500 were in the green, and two were in the red, with consumer discretionary being the biggest points gainer [8] Airline Industry - Airlines showed significant outperformance, with the sector up 11% as a group [2] - United Airlines was up 14%, Delta Airlines up 12%, and Southwest up 8% [2] - Delta Airlines reinstated a profit outlook for the year, expecting an adjusted profit of $525 to $625 per share [11] Rare Earth Elements and Mining - MP Materials was up 50% after striking a multi-billion dollar private-public deal with the Department of Defense to build a new magnet plant, backed by $400 million in equity and a $1 billion loan commitment [12] - Small market cap shares of METC were up about 30% after completing a preliminary economic assessment of the company's Brook mine in Wyoming, which contains rare earth elements [15] Potential Risks and Concerns - Tariffs remain a concern, impacting companies like Kagra (missed guidance) and Brazilian stocks like Embraer (ADRs fell 47%) [5][20] - Jefferies estimates that US tariffs would add about $350 million to the cost of a jet from Embraer [21] - Concerns exist regarding Verdive Holdings, which fell 6%, as Amazon's AWS is building equipment designed to cool Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs, potentially impacting Verdiff's growth prospects [18][19]