US close: Dow does little to reclaim Tuesday's heavy losses

dl nyse new york stock exchange new york city nyc wall street wall st nasdaq markets trading finance unsplash — Sharecast / David Vives via Unsplash

Major indices turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday as the blue-chip Dow Jones managed to claw back some of yesterday's losses.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.09% at 40,974.97, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.16% to 5,520.07 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.30% weaker at 17,084.30.

The Dow closed 38.04 points higher on Wednesday, doing little to reverse losses recorded in the previous session as traders returned from the Labor Day long weekend to fresh manufacturing data that seemingly indicated that US economic growth had slowed.

On the macro front for Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that the US trade deficit had widened to $78.8bn in July, the largest gap in more than two years, up from June's $73.0bn shortfall. Exports increased 0.5% to a record high of $266.6bnm while imports surged 2.1% to $345.4bn.

Elsewhere, US factory orders rose by 5% in July to $592.1bn, according to the Census Bureau, rebounding from June's 3.3% decline and beating market forecasts for a 4.7% increase.

On another note, the Labor Department said job openings had fallen by 237,000 to 7.67m in July, down from June's downwardly revised reading of 7.91m and missing market expectations for a reading of 8.1m. July's print was also the weakest reading since January 2021.

Finally, US mortgage applications increased by 1.60% week-on-week in the seven days ended 30 August, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

In the corporate space, Nvidia shares traded lower after Bloomberg revealed that the Justice Department had issued the chipmaker with subpoenas, while Dick's Sporting Goods smashed earnings estimates but issued cautious guidance ahead of November's Federal election, and Dollar Tree shares slumped after the discount retailer missed on earnings and lowered full-year guidance.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Boeing Co. (BA) $163.51 1.55%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $203.91 1.31%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $230.82 1.29%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $604.07 0.90%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $175.80 0.73%
Visa Inc. (V) $280.49 0.70%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $287.48 0.69%
3M Co. (MMM) $131.71 0.66%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $489.98 0.52%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $77.26 0.12%