US Stock Indexes Eke Out Gains in Quiet Day on Wall Street
Bond yields fell following a report showing U. S. consumer confidence dipped this month.
A report showing that pending U. S. home sales inched higher last month helped lift homebuilder shares.
Bill Northey said that This is probably a little bit of an air pocket on light volume in terms of yields,
but it is clearly being impacted by the somewhat softer number that we saw out of consumer confidence today,
U. S. stock indexes capped another quiet day on Wall Street Wednesday with slight
gains, recouping some of the market’s modest losses from a day earlier.
Separately, the Conference Board said its latest consumer confidence index declined slightly this month, just missing analysts’ forecasts.
Position of the S. & P. 500 index at 1-minute intervals on Wednesday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks lost 0.29 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,543.94.
The National Association of Realtors said signed contracts to buy U. S. homes increased 0.2 percent in November.
Shares in Macy’s and other big retail chains declined a day after scoring gains on strong holiday season sales.
Wednesday was another quiet, post-holiday day for the markets, though a couple of economic reports helped drive some trades.