Icon Advisers founder and CEO Craig Callahan shares his stock picks.
U.S. equity markets were little changed Wednesday as markets headed into their final day of trading in the first half of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11 points, or 0.03%. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were also little changed.
The Dow is up 12% so far this year while the S&P 500 has climbed 14% and the Nasdaq Composite is higher by 13%. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite finished at record highs on Tuesday.
Ahead of the market’s open, the ADP employment report showed the U.S. economy added 692,000 private-sector workers in June, a decline from the downwardly revised 886,000 jobs gained in the prior month. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting the addition of 600,000 jobs.
PRIVATE PAYROLLS RISE BY 692,000 IN JUNE, DOWN FROM PRIOR MONTH
In stocks, Big Tech shares, including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., were in focus after The Wall Street Journal reported the Biden administration is drafting an executive order that would direct federal regulators to more closely examine industries that are controlled by a small number of companies.
Elsewhere, General Mills Inc. reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street estimates but warned that organic net sales would decline as much as 3% in the current fiscal year as at-home food demand declines across most of its core markets.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. raised its 2021 sales forecast amid signs that its turnaround strategies are taking hold. The company’s quarterly revenue outpaced expectations, but its profit fell short.
Database software developer MangoDB Inc. priced a 2.5 million offering of new common shares. The sale, which raised about $889 million, was done at a price of $365 per share, a 4.9% discount to where shares closed Tuesday.
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc. priced shares in its initial public offering at $14 apiece, the high end of its range, after increasing the number of shares sold. Shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DIDI.
In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 93 cents to $73.91 a barrel and gold slipped $5.50 to $1,758.10 an ounce.
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Overseas markets were mostly lower.
European bourses were weaker across the board, with Germany’s DAX 30 declining 1%, France’s CAC 40 sliding 0.79% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.59%.
In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite rallied 0.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.57% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.07%.
