The US markets closed lower on Monday, as investors remained jittery amid escalating war in Gaza and possible tougher sanctions against Russia. President Barack Obama called for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in Gaza and stated that he was concerned with the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives. On the downed Malaysia Airlines plane, Obama pressed Russia to use its influence with separatists in Ukraine to allow international investigators full access to the crash site. On the economy front, economic activity decelerated in June, according to the Chicago Fed national activity index released. The index edged down to 0.12 in June from 0.16 in May. This is still the fourth month above zero. A reading of zero is equal to trend growth. The index is a weighted average of 85 indicators of national economic activity. The three-month average slowed to 0.18 in June from 0.33 in May.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.45 points or 0.28 percent to 17,051.73, Nasdaq dropped 7.45 points or 0.17 percent to 4,424.70, while the S&P 500 was down by 4.59 points or 0.23 percent at 1,973.63.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Monday; Infosys was down 0.74%, HDFC Bank was down 0.71%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.44%. On the other hand, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.13% and Wipro was up by 0.13%.