US open: Stocks mixed as investors eye Fed officials, Brexit
US equity markets were mixed on Wednesday as investors looked to speeches from Federal Reserve officials and kept abreast of events in Europe as Britain started divorce proceedings with the EU.
At 1547 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.14% to 20,672.11, the S&P 500 rose 0.14% to 2,361.78, and the Nasdaq was 0.32% higher at 5,893.83.
Meanwhile, oil prices gained, with West Texas Intermediate up 1.46% to $49.07 a barrel and Brent crude up 1.44% to $52.08.
Investors were eyeing speeches by Federal Reserve presidents to look for hints on another possible interest rate hike in June after dovish comments from central bank officials recently.
Chicago Fed president Charles Evans told a conference in Germany that he supported “another one or two increases this year” due to progress in full employment and stable inflation in the US.
Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren will speak on the economic outlook to the Boston Economic Club at 1630 BST, while San Francisco Fed president John Williams will talk about the US economy at the Forecasters Club of New York at 1810 BST.
Across the pond, British Prime Minister Theresa May signed a letter on Tuesday evening to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty which will start a two-year clock on negotiations to leave the trading bloc. The country’s EU ambassador, Sir Tim Barrow hand delivered the letter to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council on Wednesday.
Immediately after the clause was triggered, the pound rose against the dollar to a daily high. Sterling increased 0.14% versus the greenback to 1.2469, recovering from falls earlier in the day.
Currently, the dollar is 0.16% higher versus the pound at 0.8044 and 0.54% higher against the euro at 0.9297 but down 0.19% against the yen to 110.94.
Analysts at Monex Europe said: “After taking a pummelling last week on the failure of ‘Trumpcare’ legislation, dollar is attempting a rally this week, and made progress against most of the G10 overnight after yesterday’s advances versus sterling and the euro.
“Yesterday’s fundamental data was positive, including a smaller than expected goods trade deficit, which, somewhat humorously given recent rhetoric from President Trump, may well be due to the timing of the Chinese New Year holiday in the nation that is the key source of US imports.”
On the data front, US pending home sales rose a lot more than expected in February, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
The NAR's monthly index rose 5.5% to 112.3 from 106.4 in January and now sits 2.6% above a year ago, marking the highest level since last April. Economists had expected a 2.1% jump on the month.
On the corporate front, Vertex Pharmaceuticals soared 23.2% following news late on Tuesday that its drug for cystic fibrosis met endpoints in two late-stage clinical studies.
Restoration Hardware parent RH climbed 13.05% following better-than-expected earnings late on Tuesday.
Restaurant chain Dave & Buster’s Entertainment fell 1.98% after disappointing updates, while rival Sonic Corp surged 6.81% after quarterly earnings beat expectations.
Amazon extended gains, rising 1.2% to a record high after launching a new grocery service, Amazon Fresh Pickup, on Tuesday.