Investing.com – Wall Street managed to recover from its sell-off at the open, with the Dow starting Tuesday off more than 100 points but crawling back to positive territory as the session progressed, as investors managed to take increased tensions between the U.S. and North Korea in stride.
At 12:27PM ET (16:27GMT), the Dow Jones inched up 16 points, or 0.07%, the S&P 500 slipped 1 point, or 0.05%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 11 points, or 0.17%.
North Korea fired a missile during early Asian hours that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific about 1,180 kilometers (735 miles) off the northern region of Hokkaido, in a sharp escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe called the missile launch an “unprecedented and grave threat” to the country’s security.
"The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement in early morning New York hours.
Trump further suggested that the action only increased North Korea’s isolation and insisted that “All options are on the table."
The news of the launch threw investors into risk-off mode, sending global equities lower as traders piled into traditional safe haven assets such as gold, the yen, the Swiss franc and U.S. Treasuries.
As the day progressed, U.S. stocks recovered with both the Dow and Nasdaq entering the black while European shares closed Tuesday a fair distance away from intraday lows.
Gold moved off intraday highs and losses in USD/JPY and USD/CHF were pared, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury moved off a 9-month low of 2.086% not seen since last November.
Economic data released Tuesday helped to support sentiment as consumer confidence hit a 5-month high in August, beating forecasts.
The S&P Case Shiller home price index showed another strong reading with a 5.7% annualized increase in June.
In more downbeat company news, Nike (NYSE:NKE) led the Dow lower with losses of around 2.6% after Morgan Stanley cut the footwear company’s price target to $64 from the prior $68.
Earnings news was also negative with Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) tumbling 11% after the electronics retailer warned that recent strong sales were not a “new normal”.
In similar news, J.Jill (NYSE:JILL) tanked nearly 16% despite better-than-expected earnings as the women's apparel retailer gave a weak full-year guidance.
H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) was on tap to report earnings after Tuesday’s market close.
Meanwhile, crude prices fell to their lowest level in over a month on Tuesday as energy markets continued to weigh the damage from Hurricane Harvey.
On Monday, the International Energy Agency stated that the release of emergency oil stockpiles was unnecessary as markets were well supplied.
In that light, markets will keep an eye on weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute out later on Tuesday ahead of the official government report on Wednesday.
U.S. crude futures slumped 1.29% to $45.97 by 12:28PM ET (16:28GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.14% to $51.35.