Wall Street recovers losses on bargain-shopping, closes slightly lower
Major equity indexes in the U.S. were able to recover the majority of their losses towards the end of the day as the flight-to-safety created an opportunity for dip-buying.
After closing the previous day with moderate losses, Wall Street started the day lower on Wednesday as the risk aversion weighed on global stock indexes. In fact, the Japanese Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%, the German DAX lost 1.12%, and the UK FTSE dropped 0.6%. However, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson crossed the wires in the session, downplaying President Trump's comments by saying that he did not believe there was an imminent threat and Trump's intention was to send a message in a language that North Korea's leader could understand.
"After a dip of as much as 0.52 percent earlier in the day, investors appeared to take some comfort in Tillerson's comments," Richard Steinberg, managing director at HighTower Advisors in New York, told Reuters, and further added "you'd need to see something more tangible than just rhetoric for a broader pullback. I would continue to sit back and wait. I don't think this is something where you need to run for the hills and sell."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 36.64 points, or 0.17% percent, to close at 22,048.7. The S&P 500 closed virtually unchanged at 2,473.00 while the Nasdaq Composite lost 18.13 points, or 0.28%, to 6,352.33.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- Forex today: North Korea tensions drive flows into safe havens
- US Dollar fades uptick to weekly highs, consolidates near mid-93s
- Gold: steepest daily rise since mid-May
- Goldman analysts say they are not yet ready to call for sustained dollar weakness - Reuters
- Eyes turning to the US debt ceiling as a major risk - Westpac
- Fed’s Bullard: No need to be pre-emptive amid weak inflation
- Fed’s Evans: December Fed rate hike possible, depends on inflation
- US Treasuries: Flight-to-safety pushes yields down
- US: Real growth continues but credit clouds are developing - Wells Fargo
- US dollar to continue its downtrend as global growth picks up - Wells Fargo
- Core CPI inflation likely pauses weakening - Nomura