At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was less than four points up at 18,533.05. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.1 percent having already risen for three sessions in a row.
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On Monday, major USA equity markets were relatively unchanged, taking a pause but staying close to their record levels.
“Overall, the USA economy seems to be reasonably robust for now”, said Frances Hudson, an Edinburgh-based strategist at Standard Life Investments.
Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day, although gold stocks are seeing considerable strength amid an increase by the price of the precious metal.
Pressured by losses in Bristol-Myers, Merck and Allergan, the S&P 500 health care index dipped 0.9 percent while the Nasdaq biotech index dropped 1.1 percent.
Asian markets finished mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.1 percent, and the Shanghai Composite added 0.7 per cent.
September-dated crude futures were last spotted down 2% at $41.90 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said domestic crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week and amid reports Saudi Arabia produced a record amount of oil last month.
Monday’s session was marked by low trading volumes, as investors eyed retail sales and producer inflation figures later in the week.
The S&P 500 has rallied 19 percent since reaching a 22-month low in February, while a measure of volatility posted its longest stretch of weekly declines in nearly eight years. In other economic news wholesale inventories rose a revised 0.3% in June, up from the initial estimate of no change, and National Federation of Independent Business small-business index for July rose 0.1 point to 94.6, continuing a recent uptrend.
However, a forecast-beating payrolls report on Friday has helped bring back some of the risk-on mode in the markets.
Germany’s DAX index jumped 2.5 percent to its highest point of 2016.
If the trend of robust economic data continues, it could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sometime this year.
The S&P 500 declined 0.1% to 2180.89. Nikkei ended 0.18% lower today as yen strengthened after weak U.S. data and investors booked gains ahead of a Japanese holiday.
Twilio rose 2.3 percent to $43.48 after the company forecast upbeat revenue for the current quarter.
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Productivity, which is the average hourly output for each worker, fell for a third-consecutive quarter.
