S&P 500 posts quarterly advance of 20% for index’s best Q2 since

Stocks rallied into the close Tuesday to cap off the best second quarter for blue-chip equities since the S&P 500 was created in 1957.

The S&P 500 surged nearly 20% for the April through June quarter, in a swift rebound from the index’s March lows as a historic infusion of fiscal and monetary stimulus to prop up individuals, business and the economy undercut concerns over the coronavirus’s spread.

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The advance marked the index’s best overall quarter since 1998. The Dow jumped more than 17.5%, and the Nasdaq outperformed with a greater than 30% gain for the second quarter, marking these indices’ best overall quarters since 1987 and 2001, respectively.

Each of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors closed out the second quarter in positive territory. The consumer discretionary sector led with a 32.6% quarterly gain, followed by the information tech sector at 30.1%. The consumer staples and utilities sectors lagged, rising 7.3% and 1.8%, respectively, during the second quarter.

By stock, Halliburton and Marathon Oil posted the biggest second-quarter rises in the S&P 500, with each advancing more than 80% as energy prices staged a recovery from a mid-April nadir. However, the stocks had been laggards in the first quarter, and each stock was still down by about half for the year to date through Tuesday’s close. West Texas intermediate crude oil prices rose 92% during the second quarter for the commodity’s best quarter since 1990, after a 66.5% slump in the first three months of the year.

PayPal, Gap, eBay and Dish Network also led the S&P 500 higher, with each stock posting quarterly advances of more than 70%. Xerox Holdings, Apache Corp. and Biogen were the biggest laggards for the second quarter, with each dropping more than 15%.

The three major indices also closed out June in the green for a third straight month of gains. The Nasdaq rose 6% in June, followed by the S&P 500 with a 2% gain. The Dow rose 1.7% for the month.

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4:10 p.m. ET: Stocks rally into the close of a strong second quarter

Here’s where the three major indices settled at the end of regular equity trading:

• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +47.05 points (+1.54%) to 3,100.29

• Dow (^DJI): +217.08 points (+0.85%) to 25,812.88

• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +184.61 points (+1.87%) to 10,058.77

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1:15 p.m. ET: Mnuchin says additional stimulus would be ‘targeted to specific industries’ disrupted by pandemic

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday afternoon that any further fiscal relief to businesses would be “targeted to specific industries” most disrupted by the pandemic.

Mnuchin added that he hopes the bill to repurpose Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds will pass by the end of July, when key measures provided by the original legislation are set to expire.

His remarks came during congressional testimony alongside Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the…