As New Hampshire votes S&P, Nasdaq hit fresh records

U.S. equity markets closed mixed on Tuesday, giving up the bulk of the gains as voters head to the polls in New Hampshire's primary and after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress policymakers will likely keep interest rates unchanged this year.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq captured fresh records again, while the Dow hit an intraday record, before falling back below that level ending the session little changed.

Voters headed to the polls in New Hampshire where a University of New Hampshire tracking poll for CNN released Sunday showed Bernie Sanders was in the lead with 28 percent of the vote. Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden rounded out the top three at 21 percent and 12 percent, respectively. In a surprise announcement, Biden announced he will not be in New Hampshire and instead will head straight to South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Powell appeared before the House Financial Services Committee for his semiannual testimony where he signaled the central bank will keep rates on hold for the foreseeable future. He also noted that policymakers are monitoring the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. President Trump, again, criticized the Fed Head for keeping interest rates too high, as he delivered his assessment of the U.S. economy.

TRUMP LASHES OUT AT FED'S POWELL AGAIN

The latest figures released Tuesday show the death toll from the coronavirus has risen to at least 1,016, surpassing the total from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, and more than 42,638 have been infected globally.

Looking at stocks, Boeing was little changed after disclosing it received no new orders in January for the first time in 58 years as the 737 Max jet crisis rages on.

While Sprint and T-Mobile shares soared after a federal judge refused to block the $26 billion tie-up between the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers.

Elsewhere, Slack Technologies was lower after the company downplayed a report out Monday that said IBM had signed up all 350,600 of its employees for the workplace messaging system.

On the earnings front, Under Armour was under pressure by over 16 percent after posting a $15 million loss for the fourth quarter and forecasting a 5 percent sales drop in 2020. The sports-apparel maker said it is considering a restructuring plan, which includes opening a flagship store in New York City.

Toymaker Hasbro earned $520.5 million in 2019, blowing past Wall Street estimates, boosted by its line of toys for Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man franchises.

Lyft shares are in focus ahead of the company's fourth-quarter results, which are due out after the closing bell. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting an adjusted annual loss of $11.56 a share on revenue of $3.58 billion.

Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate settled higher at $49.82 a barrel and gold was down to $1.571 an ounce.

U.S. Treasurys fell ahead of Powell’s testimony, causing the yield on the 10-year note to climb by 2.9 basis points to 1.576 percent.

Markets were higher across Europe with Germany’s DAX leading the way, up 0.8 percent. Britain’s FTSE and France’s CAC were higher by 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

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In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.4 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei was closed for holiday.