US open: Stocks mixed as traders digest data points

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street trading got off to a mixed start on Tuesday as investors digested a number of data points.

As of 1630 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.40% at 32,757.00, while the S&P 500 was flat at 3,982.06 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.18% firmer at 11,488.06.

The Dow opened 132.09 points lower on Tuesday, easily reversing gains recorded in the previous session as Treasury yields eased back from recent highs.

Despite what has been a generally strong start to the year, major indices were set to register their second negative month out of the last three early on the final day of February trading, with the Dow down more than 3% on the month and negative for the year as a whole.

On the macro front, America's shortfall on trade in goods with the rest of the world increased at the start of 2023. According to the Department of Commerce, the visible trade deficit rose by 2.0% month-on-month to reach $91.5bn. Economists had pencilled-in a shortfall of approximately $91.0bn.

Elsewhere, house price gains in the US continued to slow at the end of 2022. In December, the S&P Core Logic Case-Shiller 20-city house price index fell at a non-seasonally adjusted month-on-month pace of 0.9% - pushing the annual rate of increase down to 4.6% from 6.8%.

Separately, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that in the fourth quarter of 2022, house prices in the US rose by 0.3% versus the prior three-month stretch and by 8.4% in comparison to the same quarter one year earlier. Upon seasonal adjustment, house prices were down by 0.1% month-on-month in December - stronger than the 0.6% decline predicted.

Moving on, factory sector activity in the Chicago area slipped a tad in February, with the Chicago Business Barometer slipping by 0.7 points from the month before to reach 43.6. Economists had been anticipating a slight improvement to 45.0.

On another note, consumer confidence slipped back unexpectedly in February as expectations for jobs, incomes and business conditions all soured, with the Conference Board's consumer confidence index falling from a reading of 106.0 for January to 102.9 in February - well and truly missing expectations for an increase to 108.4.

Finally, the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index decreased from -11 in January to -16, its lowest reading since May 2020, and the Dallas Fed's manufacturing index slipped 5.1 points to -13.5 in February - a tenth straight month of contraction in activity across Texas.

In the corporate space, retail giant Target topped expectations with its fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, partly due to improved sales over the all-important holiday trading season, while AutoZone beat earnings estimates by $2.81 per share, and Norwegian Cruise Line missed earnings per share expectations by $0.19 despite revenues matching Wall Street estimates.

Meme stock favourite AMC Entertainment will report earnings after the close.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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