New York– US stocks ended lower as investors digested a batch of mixed economic data and a senior US Federal Reserve official’s cautious speech.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday fell 13.02 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 25,806.63. The S&P 500 was down 3.16 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 2,789.65, Xinhua reported.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.21 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 7,576.36.
Shares of Revlon dived more than 21 per cent around market close, after the US cosmetics giant bore a 15 per cent decline in sales in the four-week period that ended on February 23, according to US financial services firm Jefferies Financial Group.
Yet shares of US retailer Target rose nearly 4.6 per cent shortly after market close, as the company posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates and a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast for 2019.
Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded on a downbeat note, with the industrials sector down over 0.6 percent, leading the laggards among the groups.
Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, stressed on Tuesday patient observation on how the US economy develops and prudent management of risks in terms of the Fed’s further monetary policy.
“It may be several meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee before Fed policymakers have a clearer read on whether the risks are becoming reality – and by how much the economy will slow compared to last year,” Rosengren said in remarks prepared for a chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors in Boston.
On the economic front, the US federal government reported a budget surplus of nearly $9 billion in January, according to the latest data released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday.
The figure was below analysts’ expectations of a surplus of $25 billion for the month.
Economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector reported continuous growth in February, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its latest Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business on Tuesday.
The Non-Manufacturing Index registered 59.7 per cent, which is 3 percentage points higher than the January reading of 56.7 per cent. “This represents continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector at a faster rate,” said ISM. (IANS)
