us stocks pulled back tuesday reflecting a pause after an extended rally the sp 500 fell 03 the techheavy nasdaq composite fell 04 the dow jones industrial average rose 02 or 71 points tuesday’s declines bucked a recent trend of stock market gains the sp 500 has risen for five consecutive months including a 31 gain in july investors have grown more optimistic that the federal reserve will be able to engineer a socalled soft landing by bringing inflation to heel while avoiding a significant economic contraction the rally began with shares of big technology companies but has recently expanded to other parts of the market such as industrial and financial stocks all 11 sectors of the sp 500 rose in july the recent widespread strength is a sign that bearish investors who have been anticipating a recession are starting to buy in said jay woods chief market strategist at freedom capital markets “there have been too many people waiting for an obvious selloff that never happened and now they have to chase performance” economic data released tuesday added to hopes that the us economy can steer clear of the worstcase scenario job openings declined slightly from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted 96 million in june the labor department said that is the smallest number of available jobs since april 2021 but still well above prepandemic levels us manufacturing activity contracted for a ninth consecutive month in july the institute for supply management said tuesday but economic activity within the services sector has remained strong government bond yields climbed as prices fell the 10year treasury yield rose to 4048 up from 3956 monday the yield on the 30year bond rose to 4104 on tuesday its highest level since november 2022 the treasury department said monday it expects to borrow just over 1 trillion in the third quarter that was 274 billion higher than the previous estimate in may meanwhile corporate earnings have declined but not by enough to deflate investor enthusiasm secondquarter earnings from sp 500 companies are down 71 from a year earlier according to a blend of reported results and analyst forecasts provided by factset but that figure is turning out better than expected nearly 83 of companies that have reported earnings have topped wall street forecasts better than the fiveyear average of 77 about 58 of sp 500 companies have already given secondquarter results shares of caterpillar cat 885increase green up pointing triangle advanced about 9 tuesday after the constructionequipment manufacturer said revenue grew 22 in the second quarter the sp 500’s top performer was networkequipment maker arista networks anet 1968increase green up pointing triangle  which rose 20 tuesday after reporting results monday afternoon “i think overall earnings have been a little bit more resilient than expected” said kurt spieler chief investment officer at fnbo “the market at the beginning of the year expected much worse” norwegian cruise line holdings stock fell 12 after reporting earnings rivals also sold off carnival declined 45 while royal caribbean fell 15 spieler said that reflected profittaking after a strong rally rather than underlying business weakness “if you look at that area of the economy leisure travel is still incredibly strong” he said