S&P 500 nears record high, Tesla shares halted after Musk tweet

The benchmark S&P 500 was within striking distance of a record high on Tuesday, powered by gains in technology stocks, with a strong second-quarter earnings season fueling optimism about the strength in the U.S. economy. Plus, Elon Musk is at it again. The Tesla CEO tweeted that he may take the company private, causing its stock to spike. We explain. And Disney and Papa John’s are set to report after the bell. We’ll have the results. Next up, we discuss LeBron’s new Showtime docu-series, “Shut up and Dribble” as well as his recent skirmish with President Trump. And, finally, “pencil benches” at Mitsubishi Pencil headquarters are drawing some attention on Twitter. We explain.

Catch The Final Round at 3:55 ET p.m. with Yahoo FInance’s Jen Rogers, Dan Roberts, Seana Smith, and Jared Blikre. Also joining the show today, Harsh Sinha the CTO TransferWise.

Winners and Losers

Let’s take a look at some of today’s winners and losers. Stocks in the red include Weight Watchers as the company shares were down for the second quarter following a decline in subscriber growth; Zillow, as the online real estate website operator’s revenue missed forecasts as the company continues to expand beyond its core real-estate listing business. Zillow also issued weaker-than expected full-year revenue guidance and Discovery Inc. as the company reported lower second-quarter financials with The Scripps Networks acquisition.

Stocks in the green include Alibaba as Reuters reports that the Chinese online company will reportedly merge its food delivery units and raise funds for the combined business; Bausch Health as the company formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals beat Street forecasts for its latest quarter. The company also raised its adjusted full-year revenue forecast and Mallinckrodt, stock of the British drug maker rose 23% on sales of its most controversial multiple sclerosis product.