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Business News/ Market / Stock-market-news/  US stocks fluctuate amid mixed economic data, earnings results
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US stocks fluctuate amid mixed economic data, earnings results

S&P 500 rises 0.2% to 2,128.96; Dow Jones slips 1.85 points to 18,283.55; Nasdaq climbs 0.3%

Fed is due to give a speech on Friday on the economic outlook. Photo: BloombergPremium
Fed is due to give a speech on Friday on the economic outlook. Photo: Bloomberg

London/New York : US stocks fluctuated, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index near its record, amid better-than-forecast results from Salesforce.com Inc. and Best Buy Co. while gauges on the strength of economic growth were mixed.

Best Buy and Salesforce.com surged at least 5.5%. Transocean Ltd. gained 3.4% after reaching a settlement from BP Plc on issues related to the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Omnicare Inc. added 1.5% after CVS Health Corp. said it will acquire the nursing-home pharmacy. NetApp Inc. tumbled 12% after forecasting sales that missed analysts’ projections.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 2,128.96 at 10:38 am in New York. The gauge has slipped in back-to-back sessions after three straight days of all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.85 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,283.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.3%.

“Investors in the U.S. are sitting on all-time highs. They’re experiencing some vertigo once in a while, looking down and asking, will it hold?" said Christian Gattiker, head of research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. “The June rate hike was off the table a long time ago, but there’s some relief the Fed acknowledged this. It’s not good enough to drive markets much higher."

Fed officials last month didn’t expect to raise rates at their June meeting even as they concluded that a first-quarter economic slowdown was unlikely to persist, the minutes showed. Fed chair Janet Yellen is due to give a speech on Friday on the economic outlook.

Jobs, housing

Purchases of previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in April, a sign the industry’s recovery remains uneven. Contract closings dropped 3.3% after a 6.5% jump in March, which was the strongest in almost two years. Economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.8% rise. Prices jumped as the number of houses for sales declined from the same time last year.

Other reports showed the index of US leading economic indicators rose in April by the most in nine months, manufacturing in the Philadelphia region grew less than economists forecast in May and the four-week average for jobless claims decreased to a 15-year low.

“It feels like we’re at point where market is desperately seeking direction," said Yousef Abbasi, the global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in New York. “The economic data is pointing to stymied levels of growth and unimpressive levels of inflation." Bloomberg

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Published: 21 May 2015, 09:19 PM IST
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