Wall Street backs off record peaks, closes day slightly higher

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

After starting the day virtually unchanged on Tuesday, major equity indexes in the U.S. pushed higher to refresh their all-time highs before paring a portion of their daily gains.

Boosted by stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings reports, UnitedHealth and Johnson & Johnson stole the spotlight as they added more than 6% and 3% respectively. Furthermore, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday announced that he had reached an agreement with Democratic Senator Patty Murray to stabilize Obamacare by re-installing federal subsidies that were reduced by President Donald Trump's executive order last week. The S&P 500 Health Care Index (SPXHC) closed the day 1.3% higher and became the best performing index of the day on a sectoral basis.

On the other hand, Goldman Sachs, which recorded robust gains on Monday, reversed course on Tuesday and performed poorly as it lost 2.6%. The S&P 500 Financials Index dropped 0.55%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above the 23K mark, but closed the day at 22,995 points, adding 38.04 points, or 0.17%, on the day. "My view is it may take several days or a couple of weeks before it can sustain a level above 23,000. Right now, we're contending with earnings season, and the fact that the market has run up, leading up to the earnings season," Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth in New York, told Reuters.

The S&P 500 added 1.52 points, or 0.06%, to 2,559.16 and the Nasdaq Composite closed virtually unchanged at 6,623.34.

Headlines from the NA session:

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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