NEW YORK — Tesla zoomed higher and helped drive the U.S. stock market to more records on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 added 0.6% to top its all-time high set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 162 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.8% to its own record set a day before.
Tesla shares led the way with a 10.2% jump after the electric-vehicle maker reported a milder drop in sales for the spring than analysts expected. Modest gains for other big, influential stocks also helped lift the market, including a 1.6% climb for Apple.
Stocks got a lift from easing Treasury yields after the head of the Federal Reserve made comments that investors took as a signal for possible cuts to interest rates later this year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whose utterances are always finely parsed for hints about rates, gave a nod to improvements in inflation data after some disappointingly high readings early in the year.
“We just want to understand that the levels that we’re seeing are a true reading of underlying inflation,” he said.
The hope on Wall Street is that inflation will slow enough to convince the Fed to lower its main interest rate. Treasury yields have largely been easing since April on hopes for such cuts.
A report on Tuesday may have hindered those hopes, though. It showed U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of May than economists expected and slightly more than April’s tally. While plentiful job openings are great news for workers, the fear on Wall Street is that too strong a job market will put upward pressure on inflation and force delays to rate cuts.
After swinging lower following Powell’s comments, Treasury yields pared their losses following the report on job openings. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was sitting at 4.42%, compared with 4.46% late Monday.
The week’s most anticipated economic data will arrive Friday, when the U.S. government reports how many jobs employers added in total during June. Before then, the U.S. stock market will have a shortened trading day on Wednesday and a holiday on Thursday for the Fourth of July.
Treasury yields have been feeling some upward pressure recently because of politics. Last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump pushed traders to make moves in anticipation of a possible Republican sweep in November. That included sending Treasury yields higher, in part because of the possibility for policies that would further raise the U.S. government’s debt.
The 10-year yield is still well above its 4.29% level from late Thursday, before the debate.
In commodities markets, the price of benchmark U.S. oil ended up slipping modestly after touching its highest price since April in the morning.
Crude prices have been rising largely on expectations for strong summer demand, as well as the possibility of storm damage to oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tuesday’s drop for crude sent stocks of oil-and-gas producers lower, and Exxon Mobil shares dipped 0.7%.
Also keeping Wall Street’s gains in check was Nvidia, which has been one of this year’s brightest stars. It fell 1.3%, though it’s still up nearly 147.7% for the year so far.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 33.92 points to 5,509.01. The Dow gained 162.33 to 39,331.85, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 149.46 to 18,028.76.
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 Currency traders watch monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Â
 A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Â
