US markets end mostly lower as China-US trade deal looks more shaky

07 Nov 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday after a report said a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could be delayed until December. A senior Trump administration official said discussions continue over terms of phase one of the trade deal and a venue for a meeting between Trump and Xi. Sites in Europe and Asia have been suggested for the meeting, with Sweden and Switzerland among the possibilities, while Trump's suggestion of Iowa appears to have been ruled out. The official said China's latest push for more tariff rollbacks was not expected to derail progress toward an interim deal but noted that it was still possible an agreement would not be reached. Besides, the choppy trading on markets also came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves amid some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets after the recent run to record highs.

On the economic front, labor productivity in the US unexpectedly edged lower in the third quarter, according to preliminary data released by the Labor Department. The report said labor productivity dipped by 0.3 percent in the third quarter after spiking by an upwardly revised 2.5 percent in the second quarter. The drop in productivity came as a surprise to participants, who had expected productivity to climb by 0.9 percent compared to the 2.3 percent jump originally reported for the previous month. The unexpected decrease in productivity, a measure of output per hour, came as output climbed by 2.1 percent compared to a 2.4 percent increase in hours worked. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said unit labor costs soared by 3.6 percent in the third quarter after surging up by a downwardly revised 2.4 percent in the second quarter. Street had expected unit labor costs to increase by 2.2 percent compared to the 2.6 percent spike originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.07 points to 27492.56 and Nasdaq declined 24.05 points or 0.29 percent to 8410.63, while S&P 500 was up by 2.16 points or 0.07 percent to 3076.78.

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