US close: Biotech stocks slump on likely Clinton election victory

Wall Street ended on a mixed note amid sharp falls in basic materials and biotechnology issues and as minutes of the Federal Reserve´s last policy meeting showed rate-setters had moved closer to another interest rate hike.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15.54 points or 0.09% to 18,144.20 points, the S&P 500 increased 0.11% or 2.45 points to close at 2,139.18 points and the Nasdaq lost 0.15% or 7.77 points to finish at 5,239.02 points.

At the same time, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures slipped 1.2% to $50.18 per barrel in NYMEX trading.

Minutes of the US Federal Open Market Committee´s last meeting on 21 September revealed a still divided group of policymakers, although several of those who opted to stay put believed it had been a "close call" while "some" believed it would be appropriate to tighten "relatively soon" if the jobs market and the economy continued to strengthen.

The release of the minutes saw the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note finish up by one basis point at 1.77%.

Ahead of the minutes, New York Fed President Bill Dudley said since US inflation remains low and economic expansion could last at least five years, the Fed can be "gentle" in removing monetary stimulus.

"We're at a point where the economic expansion has plenty of room to run," he said.

"Inflation is a little below our target, rather than above our target, so I think we can be quite gentle as we go in terms of gradually removing monetary policy accommodation."

For Michael Gapen at Barclays Research: "Our base case remains for a December rate increase, but the FOMC minutes reveal widespread discord within the committee on a variety of issues. These divisions, plus the tendency of the incoming data to be positive, but with blemishes, means a rate hike in December is not a done deal by any means."

Among stocks, the best performance was seen in the following industrial groups: Speciality REITs (1.63%), durable household products (1.54%) and Mortgage finance (1.51%).

Going the other way, Biotechnology stocks lost 3.27%, with market commentary highlighting the prospect of a Clinton victory in the next presidential elections as a negatve factor.

Overnight, a WSJ/NBC poll showed Clinton had extender her lead over the Republican presidential contender Donald Trump to nine points.

To take note of perhaps, in a research note sent to clients HSBC technical analyst Murray Gunn cautioned that: "the possibility of a severe fall in the stock market is now very high."

Data from the Department of Labor revealed that job openings fell by 388,000 in July to reach 5.4m, alongside a drop in the rate of job openings from 3.9% to 3.6%.

Dow Jones - Risers

Nike Inc. (NKE) $52.44 1.20%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $115.34 1.18%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $114.73 0.91%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $117.34 0.89%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $50.30 0.80%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $126.71 0.67%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $41.78 0.58%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $117.98 0.28%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $135.16 0.26%
Visa Inc. (V) $82.25 0.26%