Dow Jones, S&P 500 continue to post record highs despite weak consumer confidence data
US markets continued to shrug off weak economic data to post yet another day of record highs on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones gained 0.2% or just over 80 points, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.25%. Both indices hit all-time highs intraday and also closed at record levels. The Nasdaq too, surged 0.6% but is still 600 points away from its own record high levels.
Gains in the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were led by Nvidia, shares of which surged 4% after regulatory filings showed that CEO Jensen Huang is done selling shares of the company at least for now.
Stocks continued to surge despite consumer confidence suffering its biggest one-month decline in over three years, hitting levels of 98.7 in September, far below the expectations from economists, who pegged the figure at 104.
This data followed a warning from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who warned about geopolitical instability getting worse and being his biggest caution for the market.
“The decay in the perceptions of jobs available was striking,” according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “It also will deliver a warning message about the state of the economy to financial markets.”
US bond yields were mostly lower with the biggest drop seen in shorter dated securities after a $69 billion auction of two-year notes.
Investors are awaiting data on the Fed’s preferred price metric and US personal spending later this week for further clues on the depth of future reductions.
Still, Michael Sneyd, head of cross-asset and macro quantitative strategy at BNP Paribas, said it would take time for the economic impact of stimulus to feed through. “That China stimulus news is probably not enough to take off those downside risks in the European economy just yet.”
Oil prices climbed on hopes of a stronger Chinese economy and as a major Israeli strike on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon kept tensions high in the Middle East. Gold hit a record trading above $2,662 an ounce.
(With Inputs From Agencies.)