Comments
The Dow Jones Industrial Average scored its sixth straight record high on Thursday, but just barely, while the S&P 500 edged lower due to declining energy stocks.
It was a mixed day on wall Street as investors digested recent gains and sold banks that have been big winners in the "Trump rally” that has seen the S&P 500 rise about 5 per cent so far in 2017, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 4 per cent.
Signs of an improving economy and promises by President Donald Trump to cut corporate taxes and reduce financial regulations have been behind much of the recent gains. Now, with a strong fourth-quarter earnings season mostly complete, many investors say they need concrete signs of progress from Trump to justify more gains.
“Some of the excitement and enthusiasm over earnings and those Trump growth initiatives is starting to shift to more practical, day-to-day events,” said Jeff Kravetz, a Phoenix-based regional investment director of the Private Client Reserve at US Bank.
The energy sector declined 1.37 per cent, following oil prices lower as traders weighed swelling US inventories against possible renewed efforts by major oil producers to reduce a price-sapping glut.
The S&P 500 consumer discretionary index lost 0.44 per cent, with TripAdvisor sinking 10.97 per cent after posting lower-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.
The consumer discretionary index is trading at almost 19 times expected earnings, while the S&P 500 is trading at 17 times expected earnings, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.
Cisco Systems rose 2.38 per cent after its quarterly report late the day before, helping push the Dow into positive territory by the close of trading after spending most of the day with a loss.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.04 per cent to close at 20,619.77, its sixth straight record-high close. The S&P 500 had lost 0.09 per cent to 2,347.22 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.08 per cent to 5,814.90.
Wells Fargo slipped 0.73 per cent after Credit Suisse downgraded its stock to “neutral” from “outperform".
NetEase jumped 14.08 per cent following the Chinese online game developer's revenue beat.
Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies have risen about 7.3 per cent, the strongest expansion since the third quarter of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data. Analysts on average expect S&P 500 earnings for the first quarter to rise 10.7 per cent.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.33-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.30-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 56 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 153 new highs and 24 new lows.
About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, just above the daily average of 6.8 billion over the last 20 sessions.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
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.