After a sluggish start, U.S. stocks managed to recover some ground by Wednesday afternoon due to selective buying in key sectors. Nonetheless, investor sentiment remains cautious as the market braces for critical economic data, including reports on consumer income and spending.
Notably, first-quarter GDP data, May figures for durable goods orders, and jobless claims are expected to be released later this week.
Among the major benchmarks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 19.89 points, or 0.05%, to 39,132.05. The S&P 500 declined by 5.38 points, or 0.1%, to 5,463.92, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 20.86 points, or 0.11%, to 17,738.52.
Leading the gainers were Apple Inc. with a 2.3% increase, Amazon rising by approximately 4%, and Tesla surging nearly 4%. Other notable performers included Walmart, Home Depot, Netflix, and Boeing.
Conversely, Automatic Data Processing fell by nearly 4%. Several other major corporations—Citigroup, Comcast Corporation, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Amgen, Qualcomm, AMD, Chevron, Bank of America, and Nvidia—experienced declines ranging from 1% to 3%.
On the economic front, a report from the Commerce Department revealed that new home sales in the U.S. experienced a significant decline in May, dropping by 11.3% to an annual rate of 619,000. This follows a 2.0% increase to a revised rate of 698,000 in April. Economists had anticipated new home sales to climb to an annual rate of 640,000 from the initially reported 634,000 for the previous month.
Meanwhile, building permits in the U.S. decreased by 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.399 million in May, which was later revised upwards from a preliminary estimate of 1.386 million.
Internationally, Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, supported by a rebound in tech stocks which offset hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials. With a cloud of uncertainty looming over interest rate forecasts, investors are eagerly awaiting the release of key U.S. inflation data for further directional insights.
In Europe, stock markets were unable to maintain earlier gains and drifted lower on Wednesday. Investors opted to reduce exposure ahead of significant upcoming U.S. economic data, including a report on personal income and spending, amid continuing uncertainties surrounding interest rate prospects.
