By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The closed at a record high for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as industrial and financial shares surged while the Nasdaq dropped.

It was almost flat with declining shares in big growth companies like Tesla (NASDAQ) Inc weighing heavily on the index.

Energy, financials and industrials were among sectors leading gains in the S&P 500. To support sentiment, the World Health Organization provided increasing evidence that coronavirus variant caused milder effects than the previous versions.

The S&P 500 bank index was also up sharply.

According to some strategists, financials and value-oriented stocks will lead the markets for the near future as investors prepare for Federal Reserve interest rate increases by the middle of the year in an effort to reduce high inflation. The yields on U.S. Treasury bonds rose again for the second trading day.

Robert Phipps is a Per Stirling Capital Management director in Austin, Texas. He stated that investors are going to “punish growth stocks with high values.”

“This is the time that value stocks and defensive stocks will outperform.”

The S&P 500 value index jumped, while the S&P 500 growth index was down.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 3.17 points, or 0.07%, to end at 4,793.39 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 209.55 points, or 1.33%, to 15,623.25. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 213.47 points, or 0.58%, to 36,798.53.

Tesla shares fell, a day after jumping more than 13% on stronger-than-expected quarterly deliveries.

Last month, the U.S. central banking announced that it will end pandemic-era bond purchases in 2022. This signals at least three rate increases for this year. The minutes of the meeting will be made public on Wednesday.

Ford Motor (NYSE.) Co jumped as Ford Motor claimed that it will nearly double the annual production capacity of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup, to 150,000 vehicles.

Although U.S. manufacturing data from December indicated a slight cooling in goods demand, investors were comforted by signs of supply limitations easing.