Wall Street closes mixed as investors assess earnings
Wall Street painted a mixed picture on Wednesday as the S&P 500 and Dow closed lower while the Nasdaq was able to advance.
- Forex today: a mixed day for the DXY, up 0.31% despite corporate earnings disappointment in the DOW
IBM's disappointing earnings report has been the main drag on the S&P 500. The company's shares dropped nearly 5% after a bigger-than-expected decline in revenue was announced. "Usually the bigger names are the bellwethers, people look to them for some signals on the overall health, and sometimes the companies that report later that beat are lost in that shuffle," Peter Jankovskis told Reuters, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
Moreover, crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid rising production in the U.S., dragging the barrel of WTI towards $50 and weighing on energy shares. The S&P 500 energy sector .SPNY lost 1.4%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 118.79 points, or 0.58%, to 20,404.49, the S&P 500 fell 4.5 points, or 0.19%, to 2,332.75 and the Nasdaq Composite, led by Intuitive Surgical (+6.4%), which reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue and profit, gained 13.56 points, or 0.23%, to 5,863.03.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- U.S. House Speaker Ryan: U.S. is ready to forge a new bilateral trade deal with UK as soon as possible
- IMF's Lagarde: I believe all IMF members are supportive of free, fair and global trade
- Fed's Beige Book: Employment increased at a modest-to-moderate pace; labor markets remained tight
- Fed's Rosengren: Fed should shed bonds soon, keep hiking rates - Reuters
- EIA: U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.0 mln barrels