US markets end 2019 on a positive note

01 Jan 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher with gains of over quarter a percent on the final trading day of 2019, on the back of positive report on the international trade front, as President Donald Trump said that the phase one trade deal will be signed during a White House ceremony on January 15th. Earlier Tuesday, trade adviser Peter Navarro said that the deal was in the bank and that the Trump administration was just waiting to review a Chinese translation of the 86-page agreement.  Besides, for the year, the Nasdaq spiked by 35.2 percent and the S&P 500 soared by 29.6 percent, recording their best gains since 2013. The Dow also jumped by 22.3 percent, turning in its best year since 2017. However, the New Year's Day holiday on Wednesday kept some traders away from their desks, contributing to quiet trading session.

On the economic front, a report released by the Conference Board showed US consumer confidence dipped from an upwardly revised level in the month of December. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 126.5 in December from an upwardly revised 126.8 in November. Street had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 128.2 from the 125.5 originally reported for the previous month. The report said the expectations index slid to 97.4 in December from 100.3 in November, as consumers were moderately less upbeat about the short-term outlook. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months inched up to 18.9 percent from 18.6 percent, while those expecting conditions will worsen fell to 9.3 percent from 11.4 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.30 points or 0.27 percent to 28538.44, Nasdaq added 26.61 points or 0.30 percent to 8972.60 and S&P 500 was up by 9.49 points or 0.29 percent to 3230.78.

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