WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After an initial move to the upside, stocks have given back ground over the course of the trading session on Wednesday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session and are currently turning in a mixed performance.
While the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up 45.61 points or 0.2 percent at 19,958.14, the S&P 500 is down 1.21 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 6,090.97 and the Dow is down 134.79 points or 0.3 percent at 42,954.23.
The initial strength on Wall Street partly reflected recent upward momentum, which saw stocks moved sharply higher to start the week.
Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders continue to monitor developments in the Middle East following yesterday's news of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
The subsequent pullback by the markets may have reflected profit taking after the major averages reached their highest intraday levels in four months.
The strong upward moves seen on Monday and Tuesday also lifted the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 back within striking distance of their record highs.
In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Commerce Department showed a substantial pullback by new home sales in the U.S. in the month of May.
The Commerce Department said new home sales plunged by 13.7 percent to an annual rate of 623,000 in May after spiking by 9.6 percent to a revised rate of 722,000 in April.
Economists had expected new home sales to tumble by 7.1 to an annual rate of 690,000 from the 743,000 originally reported for the previous month.
Sector News
Housing stocks have shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 1.6 percent.
Considerable weakness is also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.
Telecom, commercial real estate and biotechnology stocks are also seeing notable weakness, while networking stocks have moved to the upside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness after moving higher over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.7 basis points at 4.310 percent.
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