U.S. stocks open higher, but soon give up gains after disappointing data
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E-mail Xinhua, October 3, 2019
NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday, but soon gave up gains after a disappointing services reading.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.99 points, or 0.01 percent, to 26,080.61. The S&P 500 increased 2.55 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,890.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 8.46 points, or 0.11 percent, to 7,793.71.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said Thursday its reading on the U.S. services sector fell last month to its lowest level since August 2016.
The non-manufacturing index registered 52.6 percent, 3.8 percentage points below the August reading of 56.4 percent, according to ISM's report. The figure was also lower than the estimated reading of 55.3 from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Respondents are mostly concerned about tariffs, labor resources and the direction of the economy, according to ISM.
Washington said Wednesday that it plans to impose tariffs on a wide range of goods from the European Union (EU) after the World Trade Organization (WTO) gave it permission to levy tariffs on 7.5 billion U.S. dollars of EU exports to counteract subsidies to Airbus.
ISM's report on the manufacturing sector was released on Tuesday showing the sector contracted in September.
The U.S. manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers' index) registered 47.8 percent, the lowest since June 2009, marking the second consecutive month of contraction, according to the report.
The reading is down 1.3 percentage points from the August reading of 49.1 percent, the report said. Any reading below 50 percent signals a contraction. Enditem
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