In 3.08pm trading in NY, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.1 percent.
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Separately, the US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house prices index rose 0.2% in May from an upwardly-revised 0.3% the previous month and compared to expectations for a gain of 0.4%.
“The recent rally has been more shallow and has been confined to a few sectors”, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in NY. The S&P 500 has yet to have a day where it moved by 1 percent, up or down, in the last two weeks.
While the stock market has been on a record-settling rally, investors have been keeping a sharp eye on corporate earnings to see if they can help sustain the momentum. Telecom and utility stocks both lagged the market. A Citigroup gauge that tracks the degree to which data are exceeding economist projections is at an 18-month high, helping to boost wagers on a Fed rate move this year. Also advancing were shares of Cisco and those of Intel, recently up 2.2 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
U.S. stocks retreated after a streak of record-setting sessions early Thursday following surprisingly good earnings results from General Motors but a disappointment from Intel.
The best-performing stock in the S&P 500 was Cintas, which jumped $9.43, or 9.7 percent, to $106.85.
Wall Street closed slightly higher on Monday to mint new record highs for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials, fueled by Bank of America’s better-than-expected profit and a major tech sector acquisition. It benefited from stronger tool sales in Europe and elsewhere. The carrier’s revenue fell 4% because of the soft global economy, among other factors; Wall Street had forecast a steeper drop.
The VIX, an index that measures investors’ expectations of future volatility in the stock market, fell 1.5 percent and is close to its lowest level since 2014. The company also raised its earnings forecast for the year. The S&P 500’s information technology index closed down 0.5%.
One of the bright spots was chipmaker AMD, which rose almost 9.6 percent after its results beat estimates.
Cardillo said investors should be prudent at current stock levels, given the uncertainty following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and other ongoing geopolitical concerns.
The technology index rose 1.05 percent, leading the three gainers among the 10 major S&P sectors.
South Korea’s Kospi.KS11 lost 0.3 percent and Australian shares.AXJO were flat.
GE, long considered a bellwether for the USA economy, dropped 2.1 percent after its earnings report, while Honeywell fell 3.8 percent after lowering its full-year sales forecast.
COMMODITIES: The price of USA crude fell 73 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $44.03 a barrel. Brent crude rose 56 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $47.22 in London. Through the morning, it has remained within 0.1 percent, up or down, of its record close set on Wednesday.
CURRENCIES: The pound plunged against the dollar on the prospect of more stimulus from the Bank of England.
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The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.1 per cent to 14,533.57 at 4 p.m.in Toronto. The dollar ticked up to 106.17 Japanese yen from 105.86 yen, and the euro dipped to $1.0961 from $1.1013.
