Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY

BUSINESS Wednesday 17 May 2017
A25

US stock indexes end mostly lower; Nasdaq notches new high

Traders also had their eye terly report cards Tuesday:
on the latest crop of quar- Online and mobile media
terly results from compa- services company Sina
nies. Home Depot got a jumped $15, or 17.8 per-
small boost after topping cent, to $99.04.
expectations for profit and Several companies that
revenue in the first quarter. delivered disappointing re-
The home-improvement sults fell sharply.
retailer also raised its profit Dick’s Sporting Goods
outlook for the year. The slumped $6.53, or 13.7 per-
stock gained 93 cents, or cent, to $41.04, while ap-
0.6 percent, to $158.26. parel and home fashions
“Home-improvement and retailer The TJX Cos. slid
beauty retailers are really $3.14, or 4.1 percent, to
where the strength is with- $73.76. Staples also gave
in the retail sector, and of up 3.5 percent after the of-
course, online,” said Lind- fice supply chain reported
sey Bell, investment strate- revenue for the latest quar-
gist at CFRA. Among the ter that fell far short of what
other big movers that re- Wall Street analysts were
ported improved quar- expecting. q

ConEd Chairman & CEO John McAvoy, center, is applauded as he rings the New York Stock Ex-
change opening bell, Tuesday, May 16, 2017.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By ALEX VEIGA egist at the Private Client shot up 1 percent in April
AP Business Writer Group at U.S. Bank. from March. That’s the big-
A subdued day of trad- The Standard & Poor’s 500 gest gain since February
ing on Wall Street ended index dipped 1.65 points, 2014 and the third straight
Tuesday with stocks clos- or 0.1 percent, to 2,400.67. monthly gain. The increase
ing mostly lower even as The Dow Jones industrial was more than twice what
the Nasdaq composite average slid 2.19 points, or economists had expected.
notched another record 0.01 percent, to 20,979.75. A separate report on resi-
high. The Nasdaq gained 20.20 dential construction was
Utilities, phone companies points, or 0.3 percent, to less encouraging.
and other high-dividend 6,169.87. The tech-heavy in- The Commerce Depart-
paying stocks were among dex and the S&P 500 each ment said home con-
the biggest decliners. En- hit new highs on Monday. struction fell for a second
ergy stocks also fell along The Russell 2000 index of straight month in April,
with a drop in the price of smaller stocks rose 0.76 marking the slowest pace
crude oil. Technology com- points, or 0.1 percent, to in five months. Housing
panies climbed the most. 1,394.68. More stocks fell starts slid 2.6 percent to a
Financials also eked out a than rose on the on the seasonally adjusted annu-
small gain. New York Stock Exchange. al rate of 1.17 million units.
Investors sized up the latest The stock indexes headed The weakness was led by a
crop of company earnings higher early Tuesday, but big drop in construction of
and new data on home spent much of the day apartments, a volatile sec-
construction and industrial trading in a narrow range, tor.
production. wavering between small While disappointing, the
“The economic data that gains and losses. report didn’t appear to
we’ve seen today is sort of The Federal Reserve pro- weigh much on the mar-
what we’ve seen the last vided some positive eco- ket. Most homebuilders
few weeks, some good, nomic news, reporting that closed higher, led by LGI
some bad,” said Jim Davis, industrial production at U.S. Homes, which rose $1.26, or
regional investment strat- factories, mines and utilities 3.9 percent, to $33.95.