Wall Street’s half-hearted end doesn’t take anything away from the good month of August

Aug.31 (Reuters) – (This story from Aug.31 corrected SpiderRock’s company name from SpringRock to paragraph 4)

Wall Street finished slightly lower on Tuesday, although the slightly subdued end of August did not detract from the strong monthly performance of its three major indices, in what is traditionally seen as a quiet period for stocks. .

Having all posted lifetime highs in the second half of the month, including four record-breaking five-session closings for the S&P 500 before Tuesday, all three benchmarks were weighed down by tech stocks on the final day.

For the S&P, which rose 2.9% in August, it was a seventh consecutive month of gains, while the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq are up 1.2% and 4% respectively since late July. .

The performance reflects the level of investor confidence in US equities derived from the Federal Reserve’s continued dovish tone towards scaling back its massive stimulus package.

“After all the monetary and fiscal interventions, the question is, where do we go from here? Is the S&P going to 5,000 and how does it get there?” said Eric Metz, CEO of SpiderRock Advisors.

While a strong rebound in economic growth and corporate earnings has boosted U.S. stocks, investors are concerned about the increase in coronavirus cases and the direction of Fed policy.

US consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in six months in August, according to Conference Board survey data on Tuesday, offering a cautious note for the economic outlook. Read more

A Reuters poll last week showed strategists believe the S&P 500 is expected to end 2021 not far from its current level. Read more

“Where will the leadership come from so that the actions take height?” Is it earnings growth, is it growth relative to value, technology or energy? This needs to be defined, but I think the next step for equities will be sector driven, “Metz added.

Tech stocks have continued to attract investor interest in recent days, given the benefits that lowering rates have on their future earnings, although the industry index (.SPLRCT) was among the worst performers on Tuesday.

Apple shares (AAPL.O) fell 0.8% after hitting a lifetime high in the previous session, while Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) fell 16.7%, reporting a faster than expected drop in demand for its video. conference service after a boom caused by the pandemic. Read more

Seven of S&P’s top 11 sectors fell. Among those that did not were the real estate (.SPLRCR) and communications services (.SPLRCL) indices, which closed at record highs.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) lost 39.11 points, or 0.11%, to 35,360.73, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 6.11 points, or 0.13%, at 4,522.68 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) lost 6.66 points, or 0.04%, to 15,259.24.

Kansas City Southern (KSU.N) fell 4.4% in afternoon trading after the U.S. rail regulator rejected a voting trust structure that would have allowed Canadian National Railway Co (CNR. TO) to proceed with its $ 29 billion acquisition project from its US counterpart. Read more

Volume on the U.S. exchanges was 9.84 billion shares, compared to 8.98 billion on average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.

The S&P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 119 new highs and 23 new lows.

Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Aditya Soni and Lisa Shumaker

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