Comments
Wall Street's major indexes had ended little changed on Monday, retreating modestly from record highs set during the session, as gains for Amazon countered losses in the shares of energy companies.
Investors also digested strong economic data, which showed sales of new US single-family homes unexpectedly rose in October to a 10-year high amid robust demand across the country.
Prospects for corporate tax cuts have also occupied market watchers who hope such reforms would further fuel the record-setting run for equities.
Tax Bill
President Donald Trump summoned Senate Republican tax-writers to the White House to urge the passage of a sweeping tax Bill as Republicans rushed to bring the Bill to a Senate vote, possibly as soon as Thursday.
"You have got this continuous background of tax reform," said Peter Andersen, chief investment officer with Fiduciary Trust Company in Boston.
“But underlying that, if you just take your eyes off that for a moment and look at the other fundamentals of the economy and the world economy, things look very positive, Andersen said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.79 points or 0.1 per cent to 23,580.78, the S&P 500 lost 1 points or 0.04 per cent to 2,601.42 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.64 points or 0.15 per cent to 6,878.52.
Powell's nomination
Investors were also eyeing Tuesday's hearing at the US Senate Banking Committee to confirm the nomination of Jerome Powell to succeed Janet Yellen at the helm of the Federal Reserve.
Shares of online retailer Amazon rose 0.8 per cent as consumers sought Cyber Monday online promotions following the Black Friday start to the holiday shopping season.
“These are retails two biggest days of the year and not surprisingly retail is driving this market,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa.
Amazon led the S&P 500 retailing index up 0.6 per cent. Shares of Gap rose 1.2 per cent and Victoria's Secret owner L Brands rose 4.1 per cent.
OPEC meet
Energy was the worst-performing major sector, falling 1.0 per cent. US crude eased from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply and uncertainty about Russia's resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week's OPEC meeting.
Shares of oil majors Chevron and Exxon fell 0.8 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
Chipmaker shares were also notable laggards. Micron Technology declined 3.3 per cent and Nvidia slipped 1.3 per cent, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index off 1.3 per cent.
The declines followed a 5-per cent drop in the shares of Samsung Electronics in Asian trading after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock, citing concerns that a boom in memory chips is likely to peak soon.
Shares of hard-drive maker Western Digital dropped 6.7 per cent after a downgrade.
Merger news
In merger news, Time rose 9.5 per cent after media company Meredith said it would buy the magazine publisher. Meredith shares surged 10.7 per cent.
Barracuda Networks shares jumped 16.5 per cent after the data security company agreed to be bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC.
About 5.7 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, below the 6.4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.68-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.43-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.