Item 1 of 3 Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared their gains to end essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.
Gold hit a record high as the safe-haven metal benefited from looming U.S. election uncertainties.
“By far the biggest contributor to today’s rally is TSMC’s upward guidance, and that the much-telegraphed semiconductor slowdown associated with potential oversaturation of AI is not emerging, at least in their order books,” said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia.
“So that leadership from the semiconductor space, when it hits the largest-cap companies, is going to push the headline indices higher,” Green said. “That, and the response to retail sales data,” has added support to U.S. stocks, Green added.
The S&P 500 closed nominally lower and the Nasdaq ended the session slightly higher, giving up earlier gains driven by a stronger-than-expected retail sales report, and jobless claims data that landed below economists’ estimates.
The move marked the ECB’s third rate cut this year as the central bank has shifted its focus from reining in inflation to shoring up the EU’s sputtering economy.
U.S. Treasury yields gained ground after data suggested the U.S. economy is on solid footing, but left the Fed with enough room to move forward on a slower path to lower rates.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 8.2 basis points to 4.098%, from 4.016% late on Wednesday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 9.8 basis points to 4.3972% from 4.299% late on Wednesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 4.8 basis points to 3.983%, from 3.935% late on Wednesday.
The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.24% to 103.79, with the euro down 0.3% at $1.0828.
Against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.41% to 150.23.
U.S. crude rose 0.40% to $70.67 a barrel and Brent rose to $74.45 per barrel, up 0.31% on the day.
Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,691.97 an ounce.
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Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore and Alun John in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.