The US market closed lower on Monday, as investors weighed a round of lackluster earnings and awaited the conclusion of a Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the week. Central bank policy is expected to remain a prominent theme this week. Signs of rising inflation in the US might influence the Fed to adopt slightly more hawkish language in its monetary policy statement. On the economy front, new home sales dipped 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 in March. Along with a big upward revision to February data, the March data was more evidence of slow and steady progress in the housing market. The March data missed forecasts of a 518,000 pace, but February’s data was revised up by about the same amount, to a 519,000 rate. March’s pace was 5.4% higher compared to a year ago, and it marked the fourth consecutive month of sales above a 500,000 pace, the first time that’s happened since early 2008. The median sales price in March was $288,000, down 1.8% from the same month of 2015. As sales eased in March, inventory grew slightly, to 5.8 months’ worth of available homes, from 5.6 months’ worth in February.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 26.51 points or 0.15 percent to 17,977.24, Nasdaq was down by 10.44 points or 0.21 percent to 4,895.79 while, S&P 500 dropped 3.79 points or 0.18 percent to 2,087.79.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red; Tata Motors was down 0.74%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.68%, HDFC Bank was down 0.27% and ICICI Bank was down 0.19%. On the other hand, Wipro was up 0.08%.