US close: Wall Street goes green on last day of the month
Wall Street finished in the green on the last trading day of the month on Tuesday, after Bloomberg reported that top US and Chinese officials were talking about holding talks, to paraphrase one market watcher.
Dow Jones I.A.
37,986.40
04:30 15/10/20
Nasdaq 100
17,037.65
12:15 19/04/24
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.43% at 25,415.19, the S&P 500 added 0.49% to 2,816.29, and the Nasdaq 100 was 0.54% at 7,231.98.
The release of a weaker-than-expected reading on a key gauge of inflation pressures was also boosting sentiment as traders eagerly awaited the latest quarterly results from US tech giant Apple which were set for release after the market close.
"Rumours that the US and China making efforts to kickstart trade talks has helped boost markets. Meanwhile European currency weakness is helping enhance gains seen off the back of a dovish BoJ announcement overnight," said Joshua Mahony at IG.
Shortly after the opening bell, Bloomberg reported that US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his Chinese counterpart Liu He were in contact on how to restart trade negotiations.
Significantly, 10-year US Treasury yields were two basis points lower at 2.96%, having early hit an intra-session low of 2.93%, after the Bank of Japan told markets overnight it intended to maintain then current short and long-term interest rates at their extremely low levels for an "extended period of time".
Lifting sentiment also, before the opening bell the Commerce Department reported that the 'core' price deflator for US personal consumption expenditures, the central bank's preferred inflation gauge, was steady in June at up by 1.9% year-on-year (consensus: 2.0%).
It was also revealed that government statisticians had marked down their preliminary readings on headline and core PCE for May by a tenth of a percentage point, each.
The ISM's Chicago business barometer for July meanwhile printed ahead of forecasts, coming in at 65.5, which was better than June's reading of 64.1 and expectations for a fall of 61.8.
Against that backdrop, all eyes on the last trading of the month were on Apple, with its shares trading 0.2% higher ahead of its second quarter results, which were due out after the closing bell.
Elsewhere in the tech space, stock of KLA-Tencor shot 10.46% higher after the chip equipment maker posted fiscal fourth quarter net income of $2.22 per share on sales of $1.07bn, beating analysts' predictions on both counts, alongside better-than-expected guidance for the following three months.
Shares of chip designer Qualcomm were also on the front foot by 3.3%, after the company announced the start of a modified Dutch tender to buyback as much as $10bn-worth of its own stock.
Fashion retailer Ralph Lauren slipped 0.67% after it reported quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.54 and sales of $1.39bn in comparison to analysts' forecasts for earnings of $1.36.
Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble added 0.85%, despite the company having posted slight worse than expected quarterly sales and providing weak revenue guidance for the next fiscal year.
In notable broker action, analysts at Jefferies marked-up their target price for Chipotle from $400 per share to $550.