US markets end lower on Tuesday

26 May 2021 Evaluate

The US markets wiped out earlier gains and finished Tuesday’s session lower as the market struggled for a direction. The early strength on markets came amid a continued pullback by treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note falling below 1.6 percent. The drop in yields partly reflects easing worries about inflation and the possibility the Federal Reserve could begin tapering its asset purchases. On the economic data front, the Commerce Department released a report showing a substantial decrease in new home sales in the month of April. The report said new home sales slumped by 5.9 percent to an annual rate of 863,000 in April after jumping by 7.4 percent to a significantly downwardly revised rate of 917,000 in March. Street had expected new home sales to tumble by 7.0 percent to a rate of 950,000 from the 1.021 million originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by the Conference Board showed consumer confidence in the US held steady in the month of May. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 117.2 in May after climbing to a revised 117.5 in April. Street had expected the consumer confidence index to pull back to 119.5 from the 121.7 originally reported for the previous month. On the secotral front, steel stocks showed a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 2.4 percent to its lowest closing level in almost a month. Energy stocks also saw considerable weakness even though the price of crude oil for July delivery inched up $0.02 to $66.07 a barrel. Reflecting the weakness in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index tumbled by 2.3 percent, while the NYSE Arca Oil Index and the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index both slumped by 2 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 81.52 points or 0.24 percent to 34,312.46, Nasdaq lost 4 points or 0.03 percent to 13,657.17 and S&P 500 was down by 8.92 points or 0.21 percent to 4,188.13.

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