US STOCKS-Wall Street closes higher as upbeat economic data allays slowdown fears

Nu Ride

27/06/2023 21:00

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 (Updates with unofficial closing prices from 1600 EDT/ 2000
GMT)
    By Sinéad Carew, Sruthi Shankar and Johann M  Cherian
       June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes rebounded on
Tuesday from a recent losing streak as upbeat economic data
soothed investor worries about an imminent recession triggered
by the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes.
    Separate reports showed new orders for key U.S.-manufactured
capital goods unexpectedly rose in May, and sales of new
single-family homes surged in the same month, while U.S.
consumer confidence increased to a near 1-1/2 year high in June.
    While the economic data was encouraging, Rhys Williams,
chief strategist at Spouting Rock Asset Management, said the
market also rose on seasonal factors.
    "You'd a bad week in the stock market last week and a bad
day on Monday. It's just a bit of recovery," said Williams.
"There could be some quarter-end window-dressing too as we get
close to the end of the quarter."
    The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  snapped a
six-day losing streak on Tuesday while the tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite  .IXIC  was eyeing its best first-half performance in
40 years and the S&P 500  .SPX  advanced after falling in five
of the last six sessions. 
    According to preliminary data, the S&P 500
 .SPX  gained 49.25 points, or 1.14%, to end at 4,378.07 points,
while the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  gained 219.71 points, or
1.65%, to 13,555.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
 .DJI  rose 210.66 points, or 0.62%, to 33,925.37.
    Signs of U.S. economic resilience also boosted the Dow
Transports index  .DJT  and small-cap Russell 2000 index  .RUT .
  
    And the PHLX Housing index  .HGX  hit an all-time high on
Tuesday.
    Traders were pricing in a roughly 77% chance the Fed will
raise interest rates by 25 bps to the 5.25%-5.50% range in its
July meeting, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool, up from
74.4% a day earlier.
    More economic data is expected this week, including a key
inflation measure, as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech
at the European Central Bank Forum in Sintra, Portugal, which
could provide cues on the path of interest rates.
    Powell's hawkish comments last week stalled a U.S. stock
rally that had pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to an over one-year
high and the Dow to a six-month peak.
    Despite recent market weakness, a growth stocks rally, an
upbeat earnings season and hopes of the Fed ending its monetary
tightening soon have set the main indexes on course for
quarterly gains.
    Market heavyweights Microsoft Corp  MSFT.O  and Apple Inc
 AAPL.O  were among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 during the
session, along with Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O , Tesla Inc  TSLA.O 
and Nvidia Corp  NVDA.O .
    Meta Platforms Inc  META.O  shares rose after Citigroup
raised its price target on the stock.
    Snowflake  SNOW.N  climbed after the cloud data analytics
company announced a partnership with Nvidia to allow customers
to build artificial intelligence models using their own data.
    Walgreens Boots Alliance  WBA.O  shares sank as the pharmacy
chain cut its annual profit forecast on lower demand for
COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
    Other drugstore chains, including CVS Health Corp  CVS.N 
and Rite Aid Corp  RAD.N , also fell.
    Lordstown Motors Corp  RIDE.O  shares slumped after the U.S.
electric truck manufacturer filed for bankruptcy protection and
put itself up for sale.

 (Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Sruthi Shankar, Johann
M Cherian in Bengaluru and Terence Gabriel in New York; Editing
by Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang)
 ((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +1 332-219-1897))