Wall Street Mixed as Nasdaq Hits 3-Day Winning Streak



U.S. stocks finished mixed as investors brushed off latest news coming from Washington. The S&P 500 and the Dow closed little changed after mixed economic data and retail earnings, as the Nasdaq touched another record close with the help from technology stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.01 percent to end at 20,979.75, as UnitedHealth led losses while Microsoft was the best performer. The S&P 500 dropped 0.07 percent to finish at 2,400.67, as utilities led nine sectors down and financials and information technology were the only gainers. The Nasdaq jumped 0.33 percent to end at 6,169.87.

The S&P's financial sector closed the day with a 0.2 percent advance.

Utilities were the S&P's largest decliner of the day with a 0.8 percent loss. UnitedHealth and Pfizer weighed on the S&P the most. Shares of Pfizer dropped 1.6 percent to $32.60 after Citigroup downgraded the drug developer's stock to “sell” from “neutral”.

Technology provided the biggest boost to the S&P, climbing 0.5 percent, with an outsized gain from Microsoft which traded two percent higher.

Home Depot contributed gains on the Dow after posting first-quarter earnings of $1.67 per share on revenue of $23.89 billion. Shares of Home Depot gained around 1.5 percent.

News are provided byInstaForex.