The US markets closed higher on Tuesday, sending the S&P 500 to a record close for the second straight session. On the economy front, the consumer confidence index in May rose to 83 from 81.7 in April. Both the present situation and expectations index advanced. The percentage of consumers expecting their incomes to grow over the next six months reached 20.2%, the highest since December 2007. US home prices rose in March, but annual growth is slowing down, with Las Vegas and other boom-bust markets posting somewhat cooler gains. The US home prices rose 0.9% in March, the first increase in five months. Among 20 tracked cities, 19 saw higher home prices in March - only New York posted a drop. Meanwhile, home prices in Dallas and Denver hit record highs in March. Besides, after seasonal adjustments, home prices among the 20 cities rose 1.2% in March, compared with 0.8% in February. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reported that home prices rose 0.7% in March, and were up 6.5% over the past year.
Meanwhile, the largest Navy ship-building contract ever boosted US orders for durable goods in April, but demand for long-lasting civilian items such as personal computers and appliances softened after surging in the prior month. Bookings for long-lasting goods rose 0.8% in April, propelled by the biggest burst of orders for defense equipment since December 2012. Durable-goods orders rose in March by 3.6% instead of 2.5%. And core orders surged 4.7% in March compared to an initial reading of 2.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 69.23 points or 0.42 percent, to 16,675.50, the Nasdaq Composite added 51.26 points or 1.22 percent, to 4,237.07 and the S&P 500 gained 11.38 points or 0.60 percent, to close at 1,911.91.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Tuesday; Tata Motors was down 0.98%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.69% and HDFC Bank was down 0.25%. On the other hand, Infosys was up 0.27% and Wipro was up by 0.07%.