After a weak start and a subsequent recovery that resulted in a brief spell in positive territory, U.S. stocks retreated and eventually ended on a mixed note on Tuesday.
Investors digested the data on U.S. retail sales and industrial production, and continued to track the developments on the geopolitical front.
Data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of September raised concerns the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer, and might even announce a hike in rates this year. Higher bond yields hurt as well.U.
Among the major averages, the Dow ended up 13.11 points or 0.04 percent at 33,997.65. The S&P 500 edged down 0.1 percent to 4,373.20, while the Nasdaq closed lower by 34.24 points or 0.25 percent at 13,533.75.
Goldman Sachs ended lower by about 1.6 percent after the lender reported lower than expected net profit for the third quarter.
Bank of America surged about 2.3 percent on stronger than expected revenue in the third quarter.
Nvida ended lower by 4.7 percent, weighed down by an announcement from the Biden administration that it plans to halt shipments of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.
Shares of apparel and footwear company VF Corporation rallied 14 percent, on reports that an activist investor is building a stake in the apparel stock.
US Bancorp surged nearly 7 percent. Dollar Tree gained about 5 percent. Whirlpool, Bank of America, Citizens Financial, Morgan Stanley, Adobe Systems, United Airlines Holdings, Qualcomm, and Parker-Hannifin also posted strong gains.
Moderna, DXC Technology, Broadcom, Goldman Sachs, Netflix and Intel also ended notably lower.
On the economic front, data showed U.S. retail sales advanced 0.7 percent month-on-month in September, following an upwardly revised 0.8 percent in August. On yearly basis, retail sales increased 3.8 percent in September, the highest in seven months. In August, retail sales increased by an upwardly revised 2.9 percent.
Industrial production in the U.S. went up 0.3 percent month-over-month in September, beating expectations of a flat reading. Manufacturing output, which accounts for 78 percent of total production, rose 0.4 percent, above forecasts of a 0.1 percent increase, after a 0.1 percent fall in the previous month.
Asian stocks recovered some recent losses on Tuesday, with Japan and South Korea leading regional gains amid intense U.S. diplomacy aimed to prevent Israel’s war with Hamas spreading.
European stocks turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday as data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of September raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer.
Investors also digested the latest batch of economic data from the European region, and U.S. industrial production data.
The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down by 0.1 percent. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.58 percent, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.09 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively.
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