US markets closed lower for the fourth straight session

15 Jun 2016 Evaluate

The US markets closed lower for a fourth session in a row on Tuesday, marking the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s longest losing streak since the market’s low in February. Investors grappled with mixed signals from lower oil prices, stronger-than-expected retail sales and geopolitical uncertainty roiling European markets. A spike in the CBOE Volatility Index over the past few sessions suggests that investors continue to harbor anxieties about the Fed’s two-day policy meeting, which started Tuesday, and about the Brexit. On the economy front, sales at US retailers rose a solid 0.5% in May after an even larger gain in the prior month, suggesting consumers still feel confident enough in the economy to stick to their usual spending patterns despite a slowdown in hiring. The sales gains were widespread, Auto dealers, Internet retailers, clothing outlets, gas stations, sporting-goods stores and restaurants all saw a healthy uptick in sales. Only home-improvement stores, hurt by a rainy May, and department stores saw a big drop in sales. Retail sales excluding the large auto segment and gas dealers rose a somewhat smaller but still solid 0.3% in May. Retail sales have climbed 2.5% in the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, a measure of small-business sentiment rose in May for the second consecutive monthly gain following a string of declines that had taken it to a two-year low. The National Federation of Independent Business’s optimism index rose 0.2 point to 93.8, better than the 93.5 consensus forecast. Most of the index’s sub-gauges rose or stayed neutral. Sales of goods outgrew inventories in April, an indicator businesses had a solid start to the second quarter after a difficult beginning of the year. Business inventories rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in April. But sales grew 0.9% during the same month. Retail, wholesale and manufacturing sales all advanced in April, but only wholesale inventories increased. That helped nudge the inventories-to-sales ratio down to 1.4% from 1.41% in March. The inventory data is reported on a one-month lag to the retail sales report, which showed a 0.5% increase in May.

Separately, the cost of imported goods leaped 1.4% in May - the biggest increase in four years - largely because of a rebound in oil prices from multi-year lows. A 17.4% increase in the cost of petroleum pushed import prices up in May for the third straight month. That last time import prices rose three months in a row was in early 2014.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 57.66 points or 0.33 percent to 17,674.82, Nasdaq lost 4.89 points or 0.10 percent to 4,843.55, while S&P 500 dropped 3.74 points or 0.18 percent to 2,075.32.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.21%, ICICI Bank was down 0.21% and Tata Motors was down 0.19%. On the other hand, Infosys was up 0.13% and HDFC Bank was up 0.01%.

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