US STOCKS-Wall Street rises with investors rotating into healthcare and value stocks

By Sinéad Carew and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi

Oct 20 (Reuters) - The Dow led Wall Street higher on Tuesday as investors focused on value stocks such as healthcare, while technology lagged after rebounding a day earlier.

Healthcare .SPXHC led gains among the S&P 500's 11 major sector indexes and was up 2.3% after hitting a record high. Big gainers included drugmakers, such as Eli Lilly LLY.N, up almost 4% and the biggest boost to the benchmark index, and Moderna MRNA.O, up more than 5%.

Real estate .SPLRCR and utility .SPLRCU sectors were also outperforming, with both up more than 1%, along with the small cap Russell 2000 index .RUT, which added 1.7%.

Declines in megacap stocks pulled the communication services .SPLRCL sector down. Energy .SPNY shares were flat as oil prices dipped after touching a five-month high. Traders were weighing a meeting between the Iranian president and Pakistan's army chief, a key US-Iran mediator, against Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure and reports of vessel attacks in the Gulf.

TECH STOCKS UP SLIGHTLY

Technology stocks barely gained on Tuesday after rebounding sharply on Monday. Last week's selloff was fueled in part by concerns over the cost of financing for AI developments, with cloud company CoreWeave CRWV.O at the center of those worries.

"Equity investors are still a little skeptical around the AI trade and the ability for some of these companies to monetize their investments, so you're seeing a bit of a rotation into other areas of the market," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, pointing to advances in small caps and sectors including healthcare.

"Investors are looking for other opportunities outside of tech, and healthcare is one of the beneficiaries of that," he said.

At 2:08 p.m. ET (1808 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 518.51 points, or 1%, to 52,485.50, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 31.24 points, or 0.4%, to 7,721.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 54.84 points, or 0.2%, to 26,482.94.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor .SOX index rose 0.5%. While the S&P 500 value index .IVX was up 0.8%, its growth counterpart .IGX was down 0.02%.

Investors were looking ahead to earnings reports from SpaceX SPCX.O and Netflix NFLX.O, due after the market close. Meta and Tesla TSLA.O are scheduled to report on Wednesday.

Meta META.O, down 2.2%, and Netflix, off 0.9%, were among the weakest stocks in communication services, along with Alphabet GOOGL.O, which lost more than 1%.

General Motors GM.N shares dropped more than 8% and were the S&P 500's biggest laggards, after the automaker signaled pressure in coming months from higher commodity costs and lower truck sales.

3M MMM.N gained 5.9% after the company said it was expanding its data-center partnership with Amazon AMZN.O and issued a warrant to an Amazon subsidiary to purchase 3M common stock worth over $521 million. The industrial conglomerate also raised its full-year profit forecast.

Credit reporting firm Equifax EFX.N jumped more than 10% after it reported third-quarter profit above analysts' estimates. It was among the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainers on the day, along with Hasbro HAS.O. The toymaker gained 10% after it raised its full-year forecast for both overall revenue and its digital gaming business.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.46-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, where there were 97 new highs and 193 new lows.

On the Nasdaq, 3,416 stocks rose and 1,269 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.69-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 224 new lows.