Stocks on Wall Street traded cautiously on Tuesday and off the previous session's record highs, reacting to mixed quarterly performance from US banks ahead of a historic trade accord between Washington and Beijing
NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2020) Stocks on Wall Street traded cautiously on Tuesday and off the previous session's record highs, reacting to mixed quarterly performance from US banks ahead of a historic trade accord between Washington and Beijing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Wall Street's broadest equities barometer, rose 0.1 percent to 28,960 by 11:00 a.m. off Monday's record high of 29,010. The Dow gained 23 percent in 2019 for its best performance in two years. It is up 1.3 percent for 2020.
The S&P500, the top barometer on the New York Stock Exchange was down 0.1 percent at 3,285 as major US banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup handily beat analysts' estimates in fourth quarter earnings while smaller rival Wells Fargo reported a 55 percent slump in profit.
The S&P500 hit a record high of 3,288 on Monday on optimism ahead of Wednesday's scheduled "Phase One" trade deal signing at the White House between US President Donald Trump and China's chief negotiator Liu He. The S&P500 rose 30 percent last year for its best advance since 2013, and is up 1.6 percent this year.
Relief over the start of a new trading week without undue worries about the middle East had also boosted US stocks to record highs on Monday.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.2 percent to 9,255 from the record high close of 9,274 in the previous session. The technology sector was the darling of Wall Street investors last year, lifting the Nasdaq by 36 percent for the index's best performance in six years. For this year, the Nasdaq is up more than 3 percent.
After a strong start to 2020, US stock prices were briefly down last week as the United States killed Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani and Tehran responded by firing missiles at US airbases in Iraq, sparking fears of an all-out war. Tensions, however, dissipated when both sides stood down from further escalation of the conflict.
Tehran has been rocked by protests since Sunday as Iranians took to the streets to condemn the leadership after the Islamic Republic's forces accidentally downed a Ukraine Airlines flight while firing at the US airbases in Iraq. But the protests were contained and did not affect sentiment on global markets.
In Wednesday's Phase One deal, China is expected to pledge purchases of between $40 billion and $50 billion in US farm products annually and a further $80 billion in manufactured goods and more than $50 billion in energy supplies, according to media reports citing officials knowledgeable about the accord.
