Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index switched between small gains and losses, recently trading 0.1% higher at 5,254.
Advertisement
German benchmark DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange rose 0.14 per cent, while British benchmark FTSE 100 Index fell 0.78 per cent.
While the Fed has been hinting at higher rates in the near-term, a recent set of weak economic data, including last week’s jobs numbers, have muddied the outlook.
Considerable strength is also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. Goldman’s 1.2 per cent decline weighed most on the Dow.
US stocks finished higher on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite recording its highest-ever close, after a discouraging report on USA service-sector activity was seen as possibly delaying a planned interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The Non-Manufacturing Index, which measures activity in the USA service sector, registered 51.4 per cent in August, 4.1 percentage points lower than the July reading and missing market consensus of 55.0, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey on Tuesday.
“In the last week alone, every major data point has missed estimates and that raises some major questions of what the Fed’s next move is going to be”, said Adam Sarhan, CEO at Sarhan Capital.
The chances of a rate hike in September dropped to 15 per cent from 21 per cent after the ISM data. Odds for a December rate hike fell to 46.9 percent from 50.6 percent, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The S&P 500 index and the Dow were slightly lower on Wednesday as investors awaited a key report by the Federal Reserve to gauge the health of the US economy.
At 9:45 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average was down 9.38 points, or 0.05 percent, at 18,528.74, the S&P 500 was down 0.45 points, or 0.02 percent, at 2,186.03 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 4.43 points, or 0.08 percent, at 5,280.33.
The S&P 500 index showed 13 new 52-week highs and one new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 61 new highs and six new lows.
Gold rose US$23.25 to US$1,349.99 and crude also rose US$0.44 to US$44.88 per barrel. Utilities and telecom services – defensive parts of the markets – were the top percentage gainers.
Navistar jumped 44.5 percent after Volkswagen agreed to supply engines to the USA truck maker in exchange for a 16.6 percent stake. Danaher’s shares were down 2.1%. McDonald’s Corporation, up 1.6%, led advancers, with shares of Nike Inc.(NKE), General Electric Co.
Advertisement
Nonetheless, the Nasdaq has benefited from a significant advance by shares of Western Digital ( WDC ), with the hard drive maker surging up by 11.9 percent.
