The US markets continued the streak of modest gains on Tuesday, though in early deals markets reacted negatively to some troubling economic data but selling pressure waned as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that the US consumer price index rose 2.1% on year in May and rose 0.4% from April. Consumer prices rose at their fastest pace since October 2008. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, increased 0.3 percent in May after rising by 0.2 percent in the previous month. Firming inflation rates should prompt the Federal Reserve to continue winding down its monthly bond-buying program and later raise benchmark interest rates from current record lows as the economy gains steam.
A separate report by Commerce Department showed that both US housing starts and building permits fell in May, pointing to underlying weakness in the housing sector. The housing starts dropped by 6.5% last month to 1.001 million units, while the number of building permits issued last month fell by 6.4% to 991,000 units.
The Dow Jones industrial Average gained 27.48 points or 0.16 percent to 16,808.49, the Nasdaq rose 16.13 points or 0.37 percent to 4,337.23 and the S&P 500 closed higher by 4.21 points or 0.22 percent to 1,941.99.
Indian ADRs made a mixed closing on Tuesday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.17%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.38%, Tata Motors was up by 0.64% and Wipro was up by 0.10%.
On the other hand Infosys was down by 0.47% and Dr Reddy’s are down by 0.22%.