US markets end mostly lower on Tuesday

28 Oct 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the recent spike in coronavirus cases as well as continued uncertainty about the prospects for a new stimulus bill. Caution continues to hang over markets. Coronavirus counts keep climbing at a troubling rate across much of the United States and Europe. The worry is that could lead to the return of lockdowns in hopes of slowing the pandemic’s spread, which could further choke off the improvements the economy showed during the summer. Traders were also reacting to some mixed economic data, with separate reports showing a jump in durable goods orders and an unexpected dip in consumer confidence.

The Commerce Department released a report before the start of trading showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods jumped by much more than expected in the month of September. The report said durable goods orders surged up by 1.9 percent in September after rising by rising by 0.4 percent in August. Street had expected durable goods orders to increase by 0.5 percent. The much stronger than expected growth in durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment soared by 4.1 percent in September after slumping by 0.9 percent in August. Meanwhile, the Conference Board released a report unexpectedly showing a slight drop in confidence in the month of October. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 100.9 in October after jumping to a revised 101.3 in September. The pullback surprised market participants, who had expected the index to inch up to 102.0 from the 101.8 originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 222.19 points or 0.8 percent to 27,463.19 and S&P 500 was down by 10.29 points or 0.3 percent 3,390.68, while Nasdaq gained 72.41 points or 0.64 percent to 11,431.35.

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