Wall Street Close: Bulls pull-out at last hour, benchmarks end off their highs

Stocks on Wall Street ended higher on Tuesday although were down from their highs on the day when it became apparent that the talks among US lawmakers were not progressing as fast as hoped.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was optimistic Democrats could reach a deal with the White House early on which spurred investors on at the start of the day.

She added there should be an indication of a possible agreement later on Tuesday, but that never came.

“Hopefully by the end of the day today, we’ll know where we all are,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Bloomberg television.

Instead, a phone call was held between Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin which did not resolve matters according to the Chief of Staff Mike Meadows who made a statement or two after the market close.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 113.37 points, or 0.4%, to 28,308.79, the S&P 500 ended 16.2 points higher, or 0.47%, to 3,443.12 and the Nasdaq Composite ended 37.51 points higher, or 0.33%, to 11,516.49.  

Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season saw 66 S&P 500 companies reporting results.

86.4% have topped expectations for earnings, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

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