Stocks rose on Tuesday, led by gains in technology companies, helping the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index to end at its highest level since Election Day.
A 2.18 percent gain, to $541.39, in Apple’s stock lifted the Nasdaq composite index, as the company rebounded from a week in which investors took profits before a possible tax increase next year. Before Tuesday’s trading, Apple shares had lost 25 percent from an intraday high hit in September.
Stocks pared some gains by late afternoon as more news on the negotiations over a fiscal policy in Washington emerged. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said it would be difficult to reach an agreement resolving tax increases and spending cuts before Christmas.
“There’s been a real explosion in anxiety over this thing,” said James Dailey, portfolio manager of Team Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pa. “Because markets have become the way they are, you’ve got people just stepping back.”
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.56 points, or 0.6 percent, to 13,248.44.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 9.29 points, or 0.65 percent, to 1,427.84.
The Nasdaq composite index was up 35.34 points, or 1.18 percent, at 3,022.30.
Other major tech stocks also rose. Texas Instruments gained 4 percent, to $31.01, after raising its profit target late Monday. That helped other chip makers rally. The PHLX Semiconductor index was up 1.9 percent. Microsoft rose 1.41 percent, to $27.32.
Retailers like the luggage maker Tumi Holdings and Michael Kors Holding gained after a positive report from Goldman Sachs Equity Research. Tumi was up 4.73 percent, to $21.92, and Michael Kors gained 2.35 percent, reaching $50.92.
The discount retailers Dollar General and Family Dollar declined. Dollar General, down 7.8 percent, to $42.94, said it expected margins to be under pressure in 2013. Family Dollar shares dropped 8.36 percent, to $64.68.
The Treasury is selling its remaining stake in the insurer American International Group. Shares of AIG were up 5.7 percent at $35.26.
The Fed began a two-day policy-setting meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is expected to announce a new round of Treasury bond purchases when the meeting ends on Wednesday. They will replace its Operation Twist stimulus, which expires at the end of the year.
Interest rates were higher. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note fell 11/32, to 99 23/32, and the yield rose to 1.66 percent, from 1.62 percent late Monday.
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