U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.02%

Investing.com - The S&P 500 closed at fresh record highs Tuesday, as dip buyers emerged into the close.

At 4:00 p.m. ET (21:00 GMT), the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.2% to a record of close of 6,129.32. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.1%, and the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points or 0.02%.

The main averages on Wall Street were closed on Monday in observance of the Presidents Day holiday.

Intel shares rise on Broadcom interest; Nike teams up with Kim Kardashian

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) shares jumped about 16% on a Wall Street Journal report that semiconductor giants Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TW:2330) were exploring potential deals that would split the U.S. chipmaker in two.

Broadcom has been mulling Intel's chip-design and marketing operations, while TSMC has looked into taking a controlling stake in or all of the company's chip factories, the WSJ reported.

"Intel's problems clearly started with its fab process. TSMC involvement in Intel's fabs would be perhaps the clearest way to resolve Intel's disadvantage on this front," Wedbush said in a recent note.

Bloomberg reported, citing sources that Silver Lake was nearing a deal for a stake in Intel's Altera.

Intel's stock price has surged by 18% so far this year. The shares ended their best week in a quarter-century on Friday, buoyed by reports of a possible partnership with TSMC.

Elsewhere, a regional Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) plane flipped upside down upon landing at Toronto Pearson (LON:PSON) Airport on Monday, injuring 18 of the 80 people on board.

Officials said that three of the people on the flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had suffered critical injuries and a further 15 were taken immediately to the hospital, Reuters reported. Some of those who had been hospitalized have been released, the news service added. Shares in Delta fell more than 1%.

Constellation Brands Inc Class A (NYSE:STZ), meanwhile, rose more than 3% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) unveiled a $1.2 billion stake in beverage maker in the fourth quarter.

Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), meanwhile, climbed 6% after the sportswear giant said it had teamed up with Kim Kardashian’s Skims shapewear company to create a new brand NikeSkims. The new brnad will "disrupt the global fitness and activewear industry with best-in-class innovation in service of all women athletes,” Nike said.

U.S.-Russia discussions in focus

Officials from the U.S. and Russia are holding crucial negotiations in Saudi Arabia on a potential deal to halt the war in Ukraine.

The discussions mark a possible thawing in relations between Washington and Moscow that have been all but frozen since the onset of the conflict in early 2022. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House national security advisor Mike Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are representing U.S. President Donald Trump, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a Kremlin foreign policy advisor will represent Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, neither Ukraine nor its European allies were invited to participate in the discussions. Kyiv has stated that no peace deal can be secured on its behalf.

Media reports have suggested that the gathering could serve as a precursor to a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin. Trump surprised traditional U.S. allies in Europe last week when he announced that he had spoken with Putin by phone and had ordered his team to kick-start peace talks.

European leaders met in Paris earlier this week to discuss how they would provide a unified response to Trump's actions. On Tuesday, EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that the European Union's executive branch stands ready to move quickly with proposals to soften budget rules to ease limits on defense spending by member states.

(Scott Kanowsky contributed to this story)