The US markets closed marginally up on Tuesday, with main benchmarks turning big early losses into gains, only to end roughly where they started the session. The International Monetary Fund made the steepest cut to its global-growth outlook in three years, with diminished expectations almost everywhere except the US. US growth was revised upward by 0.5% and remains a bright spot, mirroring the findings in October’s World Economic Outlook. On the economy front, a gauge of confidence among home builders ticked down this month, but still showed optimism about single-family-home sales, staying close to the highest level since late 2005. The gauge from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo declined one point to 57, marking the seventh consecutive month of above-50 readings. Readings above 50 signal that builders, generally, are optimistic about sales trends. Confidence among home builders is running higher than levels historically seen for recent building rates for new residences.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 3.66 points or 0.02 percent, to 17,515.23, the Nasdaq Composite was up by 20.47 points or 0.44 percent at 4,654.85 while S&P 500 gained 3.13 points or 0.15 percent, to close at 2,022.55.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Tuesday; HDFC Bank was up by 1.96%, Tata Motors was up 0.79% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.13%. On the other hand, Wipro was down by 0.18% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.15%.