After a volatile session, the New York stock exchanges closed without a single signal on Tuesday (16).
On the eve of the publication of the Federal Reserve’s most recent monetary meeting minutes, operations were favored by strong financial results from retail giants. Weak economic indicators in the United States were also monitored.
The Dow was up 0.71% to 34,152.01 points, the S&P 500 was up 0.19% to 4,305.20 points and the Nasdaq was down 0.19% to 13,102.55 points.
The Dow Jones advance was led by Walmart (+5.11%) and Home Depot (+4.06%). Both exceeded expectations for earnings above $5 billion and revenue in the second fiscal quarter.
For Oanda analyst Edward Moya, the balance sheets of the retail giants together with mixed data published today still support the Fed to take a tough stance on monetary tightening in September. “Walmart fared better than many feared, as the profit warning earlier this month lowered the bar for them. Home Depot impressed and raised some questions as to whether the housing market is really cooling off as quickly as many expected.”
Among indicators, the Commerce Department reported that home construction started fell 9.6% in July compared to June, when the forecast was for a decline of 2.5%.
The US central bank announced that the country’s industrial production rose 0.6% in the period, in addition to expectations of a 0.3% increase.
On Wednesday, attention is expected to turn to Fed minutes and US retail sales results for the past month.
Oxford Economics expects retail data to show a slight increase in June, which it considers consistent with a greater recovery in real consumption.
“Meanwhile, while the minutes of the July Fed meeting are to some extent old news given the latest employment and consumer inflation data, we suspect they reinforce the view that the central bank is not yet close to end its tightening cycle”, says the British consultancy.
Source: CNN Brasil
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
