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U.S. stocks waver narrowly amid data, earnings

Xinhua, January 27, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks end mixed Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average eclipsing previous day's closing record, as investors digested a batch of economic data as well as corporate earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.40 points, or 0.16 percent, to 20,100.91. The S&P 500 fell 1.69 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,296.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 1.16 points, or 0.02 percent, to 5,655.18.

U.S. sales of new single-family houses in December 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 536,000, missing market consensus, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

This is 10.4 percent below the revised November rate of 598,000 and is 0.4 percent below the December 2015 estimate of 538,000.

"The larger than expected pull back In December, coupled with the stronger than initially reported prior three months, hints that the jump in mortgage rates from November to December weighed on new home sales," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial.

In a separate report, the department announced that the international trade deficit was 65.0 billion U.S. dollars in December, down 0.3 billion dollars from 65.3 billion dollars in November.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Jan. 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 259,000, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

In corporate news, shares of Caterpillar fell 0.95 percent to 97.22 dollars apiece Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings but revenues shy of forecasts.

The Dow on Wednesday closed above the psychological mark of 20,000 points for the first time ever, while the other two major indices also finished at record highs, boosted by a batch of generally positive earnings reports.

Most analysts attributed Wednesday's increases to a continuous "Trump rally." U.S. stocks posted solid gains after Trump won the presidency election on Nov. 8, with the Dow going up over 9 percent till Wednesday. Endit