While you were sleeping: Nasdaq climbs to fresh high

Tuesday 2nd May 2017

Wall Street climbed, sending the Nasdaq to a fresh record high, amid optimism about corporate earnings such as from Apple, while US Treasuries declined.

In 2.01pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.9 percent. In 1.46pm trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq climbed to a record high 6,100.73.

US Treasuries slid, pushing the yield on the 10-year note five basis points higher to 2.33 percent

Financial markets were closed in most of Europe, as well as China and India.

The Dow moved higher, led by gains in shares of Apple and those of Microsoft, recently up 2.1 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. Bucking the trend were shares of Boeing and those of IBM, down 1.1 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Apple is set to report its latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday after the market close.

The latest data on the US economy were tepid. An Institute for Supply Management report showed its index of national factory activity fell to 54.8 in April, the lowest level in four months and down from a reading of 57.2 in March.

Separately, a Commerce Department report showed consumer spending was unchanged in March, steady for a second straight month. The personal consumption expenditures index—the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation—fell 0.2 percent in March, the first drop in more than a year.

The reports arrived a day before Fed policy makers gather for a two-day meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee is not expected to announce an interest rate increase on Wednesday, though it has signalled plans to lift rates two more times this year.

Investors will scrutinise the government’s monthly nonfarm payrolls report, due Friday. It’s expected to show US employers added 193,000 new jobs in April, while the unemployment rate inched higher to 4.6 percent, from 4.5 percent.

"The economic data today is causing some investor nervousness ahead of the jobs report this Friday," Matt Miskin, senior capital markets research analyst at John Hancock Investments in Boston, told Reuters.

"While we're starting the week of on a bit of weak economic news, the markets may turn back to corporate fundamentals as corporate earnings are still coming in strong,” Miskin noted.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he’s actively considering a break up of giant Wall Street banks, giving a push to efforts to revive a Depression-era law separating consumer and investment banking, Bloomberg reported.

“I’m looking at that right now,” Trump said of breaking up banks in a 30-minute Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at that.”

(BusinessDesk)

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