NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished mixed following a meandering session that pointed to cautiousness ahead of the US presidential election.
Besides the neck-and-neck US election, investors are looking ahead to major economic data next week and earnings from Apple, Facebook parent Meta and other tech giants.
“There’s more uncertainty out there than anything else,” said LBBW’s Mr Karl Haeling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.6 per cent at 42,114.40.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost less than 0.1 per cent at 5,808.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.6 per cent to 18,518.61.
Mr Haeling pointed to a rise in Treasury bond yields this week as evidence the market was contemplating the implications of a potential Republican election sweep led by Donald Trump, whose policies could increase government debt.
Thus far, among companies in the S&P 500, earnings growth has been 3.6 per cent, with three-quarters of the group reporting better than expected profits and 59 per cent topping revenue expectations.
Among individual companies, McDonald’s slumped 3 per cent as US officials lifted the number of people affected by a severe outbreak of E. Coli linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers to 75 cases and 22 hospitalisations.
Capri Holdings, which owns brands Michael Kors and Versace, plunged nearly 50 per cent after a federal judge blocked its US$8.5 billion (S$11.2 billion) takeover by Tapestry. Tapestry rose 13.6 per cent. AFP