--- title: "Investors rotate out of tech as health care hits a record; Dow gains 1%" url: "https://etf.net/news/dow-rises-530-nasdaq-flat-2026-10-20" published_at: "2026-10-20T20:58:27.008Z" updated_at: "2026-10-20T23:14:19.297Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # Investors rotate out of tech as health care hits a record; Dow gains 1% The equal-weight S&P 500 fund beat the standard S&P fund as health care, value and small-cap shares rose. Technology was the only sector fund to fall. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 20, 2026. Investors moved money out of technology stocks and into health care, value stocks and smaller companies on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose **530 points**, or 1%, to 52,496. The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to 7,713, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 6 points to 26,425. Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said investors remain skeptical that AI spenders can profit from their investments and are making “a bit of a rotation into other areas of the market.” The S&P 500 value index rose 0.9% while its growth index fell 0.2%. Advances stocks outnumbered declines about 2 to 1 on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq. Tuesday's market leaders include Amgen, which rose $14, or 3.3%, to $438.94, and UnitedHealth, which rose $12.38, or 3.0%, to $419.26. Travelers, a financial services company, rose $10.28, or 2.7%, to $395.73, and 3M, an industrial company, rose $9.36, or 5.8%, to $171.37. 3M said Tuesday it had raised 2026 adjusted-earnings guidance to $9.10 to $9.15 a share and expanded an agreement to supply Amazon with data-center products. Those four were the Dow's biggest lifts, and Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Boeing were the biggest drags. Apple fell $3.44, or 1.0%. Alphabet fell 1.1%, Microsoft fell 0.3% and Boeing fell 0.5%. The State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust, DIA, rose 1.1%, to $524.43, against the index's 1.0% gain. ## Health care led the sector board The State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF, XLV, rose 2.4%, to $179.83, after trading at $180.06, a 52-week high. Reuters reported Tuesday that the S&P 500 health care sector reached an all-time high, led by large drugmakers, and tied the broader advance to that rally and to softer oil. Eli Lilly rose 3.5%, to $1,283.66, after touching $1,311.75, a 52-week high. Lilly is 15.6% of XLV, and it is not in the Dow. Johnson & Johnson rose 2.2%. The State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, XBI, rose 3.6%, to $153.24. Ten of 11 SPDR sector funds closed higher. The State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF, XLK, fell 0.3%. Chart: Health care led; technology was the **only** decline ## Equal-weighted S&P 500 outpaces the cap-weighted Index The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, RSP, which gives each S&P 500 company the same weight, rose 1.2% to $215.86. The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, SPY, which weights companies by market capitalization (share price times shares outstanding), rose 0.3% to $769.05. The equal-weight fund led by 0.8 percentage points, reversing Monday’s pattern, when RSP fell 0.3% and the Invesco QQQ Trust rose 1.2%. QQQ fell 0.1%, to $717.63, and is down 3.5% over the past five sessions. Chart: QQQ is **down 3.5%** over five sessions Smaller companies rose as well. BlackRock's iShares Russell 2000 ETF, IWM, rose 1.7%, to $275.82, and the Russell 2000 rose 1.7%, to 2,774. SPY traded at 0.78 times its 20-session median volume, among its lightest in those 20 sessions. ## Homebuilder issues rose despite record-low contract signings The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF, ITB, rose 3.2% to $87.63, and the State Street SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF, XHB, rose 2.2% to $96.22. ITB had closed Monday at $84.94, about 3.5% above its 52-week low, and it remains 24% below its 52-week high. The 10-year Treasury yield, which mortgage rates track, fell 3 basis points (hundredths of a percentage point) to 5.12%. Pending home sales fell **7.3%** in September to an index reading of 66.0, the lowest since the series began in 2001, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a dip of just 0.5%. Contract signings fell 11.3% from a year earlier, with declines in all four regions. “Market conditions weakened in September due to fast-rising mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist. Freddie Mac’s average 30-year mortgage rate reached 7.40% in the week ended Oct. 15, the highest since November 2023. The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said September housing starts ran at a 1,221,000 annual rate. CME Group's consensus was 1,305,000. The Census Bureau's margin of error on the 5.2% decline from August was 11.8 percentage points, a range that includes no decline at all. Single-family building permits fell 4.0%, to an 845,000 annual rate. On Monday the National Association of Home Builders said its confidence index fell to 29, the lowest reading since June 2012. Chief economist Robert Dietz said higher mortgage rates, elevated construction costs and weaker consumer confidence were keeping buyers on the sidelines. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF, ITB, rose 3.2%, to $87.63. The State Street SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF, XHB, rose 2.2%, to $96.22. Mortgage rates follow long-term Treasury yields. The 10-year yield fell three basis points, to 5.12%, and the 30-year fell six basis points, to 5.42%. The rise in the funds lines up with that drop, not with the housing reports. ## Oil prices recede Oil eased from a five-month high. Brent crude for December delivery fell 0.7% to settle at $108.79 a barrel. The November West Texas Intermediate contract, which expired Tuesday, fell 1.8% to $101.79. Traders weighed a meeting between Iran’s president and Pakistan’s army chief, a U.S.-Iran mediator, against Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure. The State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF, XLE, rose 0.2%. General Motors fell 6.8% after warning that higher commodity costs and lower truck sales will weigh on coming months. ## Netflix down 6% on Q4 earnings forecast Netflix shares fell about 6% in late trading after the company forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 67 cents a share, below the 73 cents analysts polled by LSEG had expected. The plummet came despite third-quarter earnings of 87 cents a share beat the 82-cent estimate, and revenue rose 11.8% to $12.87 billion, in line with forecasts. Netflix also cut its 2026 advertising-revenue forecast to about $2.7 billion from about $3 billion. The stock makes up about 4.4% of XLC. SpaceX shares rose about 4% late after its third-quarter profit beat estimates. Meta Platforms and Tesla are set report Wednesday. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/dow-rises-530-nasdaq-flat-2026-10-20. Please cite the page URL.