US open: Stocks waver after mixed bag of data

Wall Street was putting in a mixed performance in early trading following a mixed bag of economic reports.

As of 16:30 the Dow Jones Industrials was higher by 0.42% to 18,032 and the S&P 500 up another 0.21% to 2,083. However, the Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.16% to 4,774.

That came as the US Department of Commerce revealed the pace of expansion for the country´s gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated to an annualised 5% over the three months ending in September. That was comfortably ahead of the 3.9% last estimated and the average projection from economists for an increase of 4.3%.

Significantly, household purchases were revised higher to show a rise of 3.2%, instead of the 2.2% gain which had been projected by some analysts.

However, another report released on Tuesday showed that orders for durable goods fell unexpectedly in November, by 0.7% month-on-month (consensus: 2.9%).

Personal income and spending were stronger in November than had been thought.

Consumers´ outlays increased by 0.6% month-on-month (consensus: 0.5%).

In the same month new home sales dropped 1.6% over the month, to reach an annnualised pace of 438,000 (consensus: 460,000).

Shares in retail chain Walgreens rose 0.9% after the company posted adjusted first quarter earnings per share of 81 cents, besting the 74 cents anticipated by analysts.

Front month West Texas crude futures were advancing 1.16% to hit the $55.93 per barrel mark on the NYMEX.

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries was moving higher by three basis points to reach 2.19%.