Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY
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BUSINESS A25
Wednesday 27 December 2017
US stocks finish slightly lower after light day of trading
By ALEX VEIGA A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange. A listless day of trading on Wall Street ended with iPhone X sales targets amid
AP Business Writer weak sales. The stock de-
A listless day of trading on major stock indexes closing slightly lower Tuesday, December 26, 2017. clined $4.44 to $170.57.
Wall Street ended with Chipmaker Micron Tech-
major stock indexes clos- (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) nology lost $1.87, or 4.2 per-
ing slightly lower Tuesday, cent, to $42.25.
weighed down by losses age slid 7.85 points, or 0.03 heading into this week. year. Despite the slide, technol-
among some big technol- ogy remains the best-per-
ogy companies. percent, to 24,746.21. The They are on pace to finish Technology companies forming sector in the S&P
Apple slid 2.5 percent 500 this year with a gain of
amid speculation that the Nasdaq lost 23.71 points, every month this year with pulled the market lower 37.4 percent.
consumer electronics gi- Energy companies posted
ant might cut its targets for or 0.3 percent, to 6,936.25. gains, when dividends are from the get-go, weighed the biggest gains Tuesday
sales of its latest iPhone. as oil prices rose.
Banks also declined, out- The Russell 2000 index of included. down by chipmakers and Range Resources gained
weighing gains by energy 53 cents, or 3.2 percent, to
companies and retailers. smaller-company stocks The major indexes were Apple, among other big $16.99.
Oil prices closed higher. Benchmark U.S. crude
Trading was light as in- picked up 1.30 points, or 0.1 slightly lower early on and names. gained $1.50, or 2.6 per-
vestors returned from the cent, to settle at $59.97 on
Christmas holiday. percent, to 1,544.23. veered little for the rest of Apple slid after a Taiwan- the New York Mercantile
“It’s a low-volume day af- Exchange. Brent crude,
ter Christmas, with hardly Stocks had finished high- the day. It was the lightest ese newspaper reported which is used to price in-
anything going on,” said ternational oils, rose $1.77,
Tom Martin, senior portfolio er for five straight weeks day of trading in about a that the company may cut or 2.7 percent, to close at
manager with Globalt In- $67.02 in London.
vestments. “You have one Investors also bid up shares
piece of news that is signifi- in big retail stocks and con-
cant on a major company, sumer products compa-
Apple. That moved some of nies. Kohl’s jumped $3.21,
the components around.” or 6 percent, to $56.87,
The Standard & Poor’s 500 while Macy’s added $1.18,
index fell 2.84 points, or 0.1 or 4.6 percent, to $26.85.
percent, to 2,680.50. The Traders welcomed the lat-
Dow Jones industrial aver- est corporate deal news.q
US home prices surge 6.2 percent, outpacing wage growth
eas with booming job mar- 10.2 percent, while San Di- pace since December
kets and the steepest home ego notched growth of 8.1 2006, according to the Na-
price gains could see more percent. Of the 20 metro tional Association of Real-
residents staying as renters. areas tracked by the in- tors. But the sales growth
“Since home prices are ris- dex, Washington, DC re- hasn’t compelled more
ing faster than wages, sal- ported the smallest price people to list their homes
aries, and inflation, some gain with 3.1 percent. As for sale, as the number of
areas could see potential the economy has steadily properties on the market
home buyers compelled to recovered from the 2008 has tumbled nearly 10% in
look at renting,” said David financial crisis, demand the past 12 months.q
M. Blitzer, managing direc- from would-be buyers has
A construction worker continues work on new town homes under tor and chairman of the in- steadily improved. The 17-
construction in Woodstock, Ga. The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic dex committee at S&P Dow year low unemployment
Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks the value of homes Jones Indices. The strongest rate of 4.1 percent has
in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas, was released Tuesday, Dec. annual gains occurred in left more Americans con-
26, 2017. Seattle, where prices have fident enough to put bids
shot up 12.7 percent since on homes. Sales of exist-
(AP Photo/John Bazemore) October 2015. Las Vegas ing homes in November
has seen prices increase reached their strongest
By JOSH BOAK Logic Case-Shiller national
AP Economics Writer home price index stood
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. in October a solid 6 per-
home prices climbed a cent above its previous
robust 6.2 percent from a 2006 peak. Prices are ris-
year ago, amid strong de- ing at more than double
mand from would-be buy- the pace of wage growth,
ers and a shrinking supply creating some affordability
of properties for sale. pressures that have been
Standard & Poor’s said offset by relatively low
Tuesday that its S&P Core- mortgage rates. Metro ar-
