Wall Street ends flat as mixed economic data fuels caution

FAN Editor
Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

September 23, 2019

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks barely budged on Monday, with gains in shares of Apple offset by mixed economic data that added to caution over the prolonged U.S.-China trade war.

Apple Inc <AAPL.O> rose 0.5% after U.S. trade regulators approved 10 of 15 requests for tariff exemptions by the iPhone maker. Micron Technology Inc <MU.O>, which supplies components to Apple, advanced about 0.9%.

U.S. employment in the services sector shrank for the first time in nine-and-a-half years in September, IHS Markit’s Purchasing Manager’s Index showed on Monday. At 50.9, the services sector PMI was below expectations of 51.3.

The data also showed manufacturing activity rose in September, topping expectations.

Earlier in the day, a survey showed a manufacturing recession deepening in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.

“What’s been a question within the market is whether or not we are headed toward a recession within the next 12 months. So all of the data releases are increasingly important,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

“That’s one thing that the market is concerned about right now.”

Investors also have been cautious about progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks after a Chinese agriculture delegation canceled a visit to Montana.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 14.92 points, or 0.06%, to 26,949.99, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 0.29 points, or 0.01%, to 2,991.78 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 5.21 points, or 0.06%, to 8,112.46.

American Express <AXP.N> shares gained 1.2% after it authorized the repurchase of up to 120 million shares and a dividend increase.

Juniper Networks Inc <JNPR.N> rose 2% as Needham upgraded the network gear maker’s stock to “buy.”

Boeing <.BA.N> edged lower after a Reuters report that European antitrust regulators were set to investigate the planemaker’s $4.75 billion bid for the commercial aircraft arm of Brazil-based Embraer SA <EMBR3.SA>.

Additionally, the chief of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration was to detail progress on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft inquiry to international air regulators.

Social network Facebook Inc <FB.O> fell 1.6% and was among the biggest drags on the S&P 500.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.22-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 42 new highs and 50 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 5.90 billion shares, compared with the 7.1 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Additional reporting by Ambar Warrick and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Dan Grebler)

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Nigeria must address housing crisis and end forced evictions: U.N. rapporteur

A car is packed outside a private housing block along Banana Island in Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria, September 23, 2019. REUTERS/Temillade Adelaja September 23, 2019 ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria is gripped by a crisis that has left Africa’s most populous country ill-equipped to properly house its inhabitants, said a United Nations […]