US markets end lower on Wednesday

18 Jul 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday as investors digested mixed earnings results and economic data, while a lack of progress on the Beijing-Washington tariff dispute remained a headache. The weakness on markets also came following the release of a Commerce Department report showing a bigger than expected drop in housing starts as well as a nosedive in building permits. The Commerce Department said housing starts slid by 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.253 million in June after slipping by 0.4 percent to a revised rate of 1.265 million in May. Street had expected housing starts to fall by 0.6 percent to a rate of 1.261 million from the 1.269 million originally reported for the previous month.

The report also unexpectedly showed a substantial pullback in building permits, an indicator of future housing demand. Building permits plunged by 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.220 million in June after climbing by 0.7 percent to a revised rate of 1.299 million in May. Street had expected building permits to rise by 0.5 percent to a rate of 1.300 million from the 1.294 million originally reported for the previous month. With the much steeper than expected drop, building permits fell to their lowest level since hitting a rate of 1.201 million in May of 2017. Besides, trading activity was somewhat subdued as traders stuck to the sidelines as they wait for the earnings season to pick up steam being making more significant bets.

Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 115.78 points or 0.42 percent to 27219.85, Nasdaq dropped 37.59 points or 0.46 percent to 8185.21 and S&P 500 was down by 19.62 points or 0.65 percent to 2984.42.

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