US markets end muted on mixed economic data

15 Feb 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended the choppy day of trade on muted note on account of mixed batch of U.S. economic data. While the Commerce Department released a report before the start of trading showing U.S. retail sales rose in line with estimates in January, closely watched core retail sales came in unchanged. The Commerce Department said retail sales rose by 0.3 percent in January after edging up by a downwardly revised 0.2 percent in December. Street had expected retail sales to climb by 0.3 percent, matching the increase originally reported for the previous month. However, the report said closely watched core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline, building materials and food services, were unchanged in January after rising by a downwardly revised 0.2 percent. Core retail sales were expected to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.5 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

Further, the Federal Reserve released a report showing a continued decrease in U.S. industrial production in the month of January, as unseasonably warm weather led to another steep drop in utilities output. The Fed said industrial production fell by 0.3 percent in January following a revised decrease of 0.4 percent in December. Street had expected industrial production to dip by 0.2 percent. Manufacturing output edged down by 0.1 percent in January after inching up by 0.1 percent in December, as Boeing (BA) significantly slowed production of civilian aircraft amid the grounding of its troubled 737 Max. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan released a report showing an unexpected increase in U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of February. Preliminary data showed the consumer sentiment index rose to 100.9 percent in February from the final January reading of 99.8. The uptick surprised the street, who had expected the index to edge down to 99.5.

Nasdaq gained 19.21 points or 0.20 percent to 9,731.18 and S&P 500 was up by 6.22 points or 0.18 percent to 3,380.16, while Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25.23 or 0.09 percent points to 29,398.08.

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