US markets made a mixed closing reacting to earnings announcements

The US markets made a mixed closing on Tuesday, with the Dow climbing to its best closing level since last July, while the S&P 500 rising to a nearly five-month closing high. There were some upbeat earnings and rebound in crude that supported the markets to recover from the early decline. While Goldman Sachs, UnitedHealth, and Johnson & Johnson reported better than expected first quarter earnings, slump in shares of large-cap tech firms led by International Business Machines Corp, capped some gains. The early decline were also induced by disappointing economic data from the Commerce Department released  report before the start of trading, showing a sharp pullback in housing starts in the month of March. The report said housing starts tumbled by 8.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.089 million in March after jumping by 6.9 percent to a revised 1.194 million in February. Stocks found support as investors turned to riskier assets on signs that pessimism over weak corporate results may be overblown.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 49.44 points or 0.27 percent to 18,053.60, the Nasdaq lost 19.69 points or 0.40 percent to 4,940.33 and the S&P 500 ended up by 6.46 points or 0.31 percent to 2,100.80.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Tuesday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.15%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.09%, Infy gained 0.06%, Tata Motors was up by 0.25% and Wipro was up by 0.09%.