Stocks - Wall Street Searches for Catalyst as Stocks Open Flat
Published Aug 23, 2018 09:34AM ET
Wall Street started the day on a cautious note, little changed.
Investing.com - U.S. stocks started the day little changed on Thursday, not unheard of in the low-volume last days of August trading.
The Dow fell 58.54, or 0.23%, to 25,675.06, while the broader S&P 500 index lost 2.04 points, or 0.1%, to 2,859.08. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.29 point, or 0.01%, to 7,424.88.
Investors are likely to focus on individual stocks in today’s trading, rather than broad market themes. But there are still some macroeconomic currents on Wall Street.
Trade concerns between Chin and the U.S. persist as 25% tariffs on $16 billion more of each countries’ goods went into effect today, which will likely overshadow any news out of the low-level bilateral talks continuing.
More data on the housing market, which has been the weakest sector of the economy of late, is due when new home sales are reported shortly after the start of trading.
Weekly jobless claims fell more than expected, according to numbers out before the bell.
And the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyo. kicks off today. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak Friday, but there may be some market-moving comments coming out of the event.
Among active stocks, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) gained about 2.8% after reporting a 61% jump in revenue. Shares of U.S. e-commerce behemoth Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose about 0.3%.
Kitchenware retailer Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) jumped about 9% after beating quarterly estimates across the board, but Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) lost about 4% after cutting full-year sales outlook.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which has seen gains this week, rose about 0.8%.
In Europe, stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 15.20 points, or 0.12%, while in France the CAC 40 was unchanged, and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.42 point, or 0.01%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 3.03 points, or 0.09%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 26.20 points, or 0.27%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.52% to $1,197.20 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures lost 0.44% to $67.56 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.28% to 95.42.
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Written By: Investing.com
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