By Mackenzie Tatananni and George Glover

Stocks pared back losses Tuesday, with the Dow turning higher as value, dividend, and low-volatility stocks boosted the blue-chip index.

These stocks were making moves:

Oil refiner Marathon Petroleum and oil exploration company APA Corp. gained 5.5% and 5.9%, respectively. The stocks followed the price of oil higher as Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 4.2% to $104.13.

Tesla advanced 0.6% after the electric-vehicle maker reported its first increase in monthly sales in Europe since 2024. Investors lately have been more focused on Tesla's endeavors in artificial intelligence, such as robo-taxis and robots.

Jefferies Financial Group added 3.1%. Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is working on plans to possibly acquire the investment bank, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The parties didn't respond to requests for comment from Barron's.

Apollo Global Management was down 0.6% after falling sharply earlier in the session. A regulatory filing showed one of the company's private credit funds capped withdrawals at its stated 5% limit after receiving requests to redeem 11.2% of shares outstanding. Private credit has come under pressure amid fears of artificial-intelligence disruption to software, which remains a key area of exposure for firms like Apollo.

The same concerns appeared to be weighing on software stocks Tuesday. Datadog, Salesforce, and tech-centric consulting firm Gartner each fell around 5%. ServiceNow, Intuit, and Workday fell more than 4% each.

Smithfield Foods advanced 4.6%. The packaged-meat giant post earnings of 83 cents a share in the latest quarter, outstripping the 68 cents analysts had anticipated. Sales rose 7% to $4.23 billion, edging past Wall Street's calls for $4.14 billion. Packaged-meats sales alone rose 4.3% to $2.56 billion.

Estée Lauder sank 10% after the beauty company confirmed merger discussions with Spain's Puig Brands, which owns labels including Jean-Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten. Puig's Madrid-listed shares surged 14%.

Core & Main rose 1.9% Although fourth-quarter earnings narrowly beat analysts' estimates, the water infrastructure distribution company's full-year outlook was below consensus.

Gilead Sciences was flat. The drugmaker plans to acquire Ouro Medicines, a privately held biotechnology company, for around $2.2 billion. Gilead will co-develop Ouro's lead candidate, gamgertamig, alongside a Belgian pharmaceutical research company in which it has a 25% stake.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com and George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

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March 24, 2026 12:34 ET (16:34 GMT)

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