U.S. stocks end mixed as energy, tech lag
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E-mail Xinhua, July 16, 2021
NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed mixed on Thursday, dragged by weakness in the energy and the technology sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.79 points, or 0.15 percent, to 34,987.02. The S&P 500 fell 14.27 points, or 0.33 percent, to 4,360.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 101.82 points, or 0.70 percent, to 14,543.13.
Six of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with utilities up 1.29 percent, outpacing the rest. Energy and technology slipped 1.41 percent and 0.84 percent, respectively, leading the laggards.
U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly higher with nine of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.
The above market reactions came as U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday continued his two-day testimony at U.S. Congress.
According to his Semiannual Monetary Policy Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Powell still saw inflation as transitory, and expected it to moderate in the coming months as the temporary base effects "drop out of the 12-month calculation."
The Fed chief noted that the labor market, although improving, "is still a long way to go" toward recovering from the pandemic.
Powell also said that the U.S. economy is "still a ways off" from the progress that the Fed wants to see before tapering the central bank's asset purchases.
"Essentially, he gave a very dovish testimony which was in line with the recent FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes," said Kevin Matras, executive vice president at Zacks Investment Research, in a note on Thursday.
The Fed has pledged to keep its benchmark interest rates unchanged at the record-low level of near zero, while continuing its asset purchase program at least at the current pace of 120 billion U.S. dollars per month until the economic recovery makes "substantial further progress."
On the economic front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, decreased by 26,000 to 360,000 in the week ending July 10, marking a fresh pandemic-era low, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Enditem
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