In Wall Street's game of swings and roundabouts, stocks have reversed Monday's 208-point surge as Tuesday brought disappointing earnings and readings on the consumer and housing sectors.The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 38.00 points, or 0.4%, down
In Wall Street’s game of swings and roundabouts, stocks have reversed Monday’s 208-point surge as Tuesday brought disappointing earnings and readings on the consumer and housing sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 38.00 points, or 0.4%, down at 10,636.38, cooling off from July’s biggest monthly gain in a year.
The pause illustrates investors' skittishness, as sentiment has been quick to change from one day to the next amid fluctuations in economic readings.
In Tuesday's round of poor economic data, consumer spending and incomes came in flat while pending-home sales and factory orders fell.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.6% to 2283.52 while the S&P 500 index declined 0.5% to 1120.46, with the materials sector leading the drop.
Other markets: Europe down, Asia mixed
European stock markets closed mostly lower. Bank stocks, which were boosted Monday by stronger-than-expected earnings from HSBC and BNP Paribas, led the way lower.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index and the UK's FTSE 100 closed marginally lower at 262.06 and 5396.48, respectively.
France's CAC-40 finished 0.1% weaker at 3747.51 but Germany's DAX eked out a gain of 0.3% to 6307.91, mainly with the help of auto maker BMW, which closed up 3.1% after reporting strong second-quarter profit.
Asian stocks ended mixed as Tokyo followed Wall Street's overnight rise despite the strengthening yen while investors in China worried about slowing economic growth.
Anothjer influence was the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to keep its benchmark cash rate unchanged at 4.5%, citing growth and inflation levels that have come in as expected.
The Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1.3% at 9694.01. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.7% to 4571.59, Korea's Kospi Composite rose 0.5% to 1790.60 and India's Sensex tacked on 0.2% to 18,114.83.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 0.2% up at 21,457.66 and Taiwan's Taiex closed 0.6% higher at 7957.53.
By contrast, the Shanghai Composite index fell 1.7% to 2627.00, andSingapore's Straits Times Index eased 0.3% to 3014.77. and
Commodities: Oil, gold up
Oil prices continued to surge after passing the $US80 a barrel level on Monday. The September contract in New York settled $US1.21 higher at $82.55, the highest since May 4.
The September Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was $US1.86, or 2.3%, higher at $US82.68.
Gold futures were slightly higher as China moved to broaden its gold market.
The most-actively traded contract for December delivery was up $US2.50, or 0.2%, at $US1187.90 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Dollar down, yen up
The dollar weakened against the euro and yen after disappointing US economic data.
The euro was at $US1.3239, compared with $US1.3171 late on Monday. The dollar moved to ¥85.76 from ¥86.48. The euro weakened to ¥113.54 from ¥113.90. The UK pound strengthened to $¨ß1.5936 from $¨ß1.5889.
