Wall Street stocks finish flat with sentiment weakened by Moody's downgrade
market sentiment
weakened by the downgrade of the federal government's perfect sovereign credit rating owing to its huge debt profile.
Moody's slashed the U.S. sovereign credit rating to "Aa1" from "Aaa" after markets closed on Friday, citing the government's $36 trillion outstanding debt and interest.
"It is to be understood that markets were going to have a little bit of reaction because the (Moody's) announcement was after markets closed," said Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group. "But my view is that the 'sell-America' trade is overdone."
Play Video
Pause
Skip Backward
Skip Forward
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
0:00
Loaded
:
0%
0:00
Stream Type
LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
1x
Playback Rate
Chapters
Chapters
Descriptions
descriptions off
, selected
Captions
captions settings
, opens captions settings dialog
captions off
, selected
Audio Track
default
, selected
Picture-in-Picture
Fullscreen
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text
Color
White
Black
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Opaque
Semi-Transparent
Text Background
Color
Black
White
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Opaque
Semi-Transparent
Transparent
Caption Area Background
Color
Black
White
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Transparent
Semi-Transparent
Opaque
Font Size
50%
75%
100%
125%
150%
175%
200%
300%
400%
Text Edge Style
None
Raised
Depressed
Uniform
Drop shadow
Font Family
Proportional Sans-Serif
Monospace Sans-Serif
Proportional Serif
Monospace Serif
Casual
Script
Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values
Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Equities had rebounded from declines earlier in the session to finish near the unchanged mark. Still, the benchmark S&P 500 notched its sixth straight sessions of gains.
Seven out of the 11 S&P sectors advanced led by healthcare, consumer staples, industrials , materials and utilities stocks.
Live Events
Energy stocks were the biggest losers in addition to consumer discretionary.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 137.33 points, or 0.32%, to 42,792.07, the S&P 500 gained 5.22 points, or 0.09%, to 5,963.60 and the
Nasdaq Composite
gained 4.36 points, or 0.02%, to 19,215.46.
Benchmark
10-year Treasury yields
gained on concerns that a U.S. tax bill will increase the debt load by more than previously expected. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 1 basis point to 4.449%.
President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill had won approval from a key congressional committee on Sunday.
TXNM Energy
rose 7% after the utility said it would be acquired by the infrastructure unit of Blackstone in an $11.5-billion deal.
Novavax shares jumped 15% after the company secured a long-awaited U.S. regulatory approval for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals rose 0.4% after it announced it will buy genomics firm 23andMe Holdings for $256 million through a bankruptcy auction.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 216 new highs and 50 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 26 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 57 new highs and 57 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.41 billion shares, compared with the 17.34 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
What will be price of petrol, diesel if India stops importing oil from Russia? Prices of petrol, diesel will reach…,Indian customers will have to pay…
India-Russia relations- File image New Delhi: In a significant update amid the trade talks between India and the US and Donald Trump imposing an additional 25% tariff on India, taking the total tariff to 50% due to India's continued crude oil purchase from Russia, reports are now talking about the inflationary impact if India stops buying oil from Russia. Notably, Russia become India's largest oil supplier since the Russia-Ukraine war and is currently supplying 35% to 40% of India's oil needs. Why Donald Trump imposed tariffs on India? In a massive action against India, the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump imposed tariffs on India as India continued to purchase crude oil from Russia. In response to the move, India clarified its stand and said that it buys Russian oil because Europe stopped sourcing from Moscow. How much loss will India face if Russia cuts imports? As per experts, if India cuts Russian import of crude oil to India, India will have to rely more on costlier oil from West Asia, Africa, the US, and Latin America, which will pose technical, economic, and strategic challenges. More notably, the shifting could raise annual costs by Rs 25,000–40,000 crore for Indian refiners, which would ultimately hit the budgets of Indian consumers. Earlier, a SBI report has also indicated that the fuel bill might increase by USD 9 billion in FY26 and USD 11.7 billion in FY27 if Russia cuts its crude oil imports to India. US President Trump on whether US will impose additional 25 pc tariffs on India? In a significant statement and a matter of good news for India, US President Trump said the US may not impose secondary tariffs on countries continuing to buying Russian crude oil. Speaking to Fox News aboard Air Force One en route to Alaska, he said that, 'Well, he (Vladimir Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40 per cent of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot…'. (With inputs from agencies)
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
50% US Tariff Casts Shadow Over India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement Talks
New Delhi: The sixth round of talks scheduled to finalise the outline of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between India and the US has been postponed. Government sources said the American delegation was scheduled to come from August 25 to 29 to hold negotiations on the bilateral trade agreement. The decision by the US trade delegation comes at a time when the deadline to implement US President Donald Trump's decision to impose 50 per cent tariffs on India will come into effect (on August 27). Talks between Mr Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska have also yielded no concrete outcome. Earlier, India and the US failed to reach an agreement on a mini trade deal. One of the main reasons was the US' demand for lower duties on agricultural and dairy products, which India declined. India has made it clear that it cannot allow the import of genetically modified (GM) foods. During his address from the Red Fort on the 79th Independence Day on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said India's farmers, cattle-rearers and fishermen are the government's top priority. "I stand as a wall against any harmful policy concerning them. India will never accept any compromise when it comes to the interests of farmers, cattle-rearers and fishermen," PM Modi said. A senior Commerce Ministry official told NDTV US officials verbally expressed their inability to visit India, so both countries have decided to reschedule the sixth round of talks soon. The India-US bilateral trade agreement began in March this year, with the aim of concluding its first phase by October-November this year. Several virtual meetings between the two sides have already taken place. India is currently reviewing the implications of the recent developments. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is consulting all stakeholders to assess their feedback, sources said. India's major exports to the US include mobile phones, cut and polished gemstones, textiles, and pharmaceutical products. The imposition of the 50 per cent reciprocal tariffs is expected to impact these four sectors the most. Labor-intensive sectors like textiles are projected to suffer particularly. "Boosting the morale of stakeholders (exporters) is essential. Everyone passed a resolution expressing their full support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Exporters also stated that they will explore alternative markets," Union Textile Minister Giriraj Singh told NDTV on Wednesday after a long meeting with large textile exporters. The meeting discussed the strategies required to deal with the impact of the 50 per cent US tariffs. Textile exporters demanded financial assistance from the Union minister to cope with the tariffs and also suggested the introduction of a relief package.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Fatal blast at US steel's Clairton plant sparks doubts over its future
The fatal explosion last week at US Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty. The fortunes of steelmaking in the US along with profits, share prices and steel prices have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China. Most recently, President Donald Trump's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved US Steel's nearly USD 15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking. We're investing money here. And we wouldn't have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren't absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley, David Burritt, US Steel's CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time. Will the explosion change anything? The explosion killed two workers and hospitalised 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation. The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the US. The explosion now could test Nippon Steel's resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated. Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant. Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong and that it sent technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support. Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay. US Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend USD 100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone. However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it's a constant struggle to get US Steel to invest in its plants. Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two where the explosion occurred were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion. There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, US Steel said. Accidents are nothing new at Clairton Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts. An explosion in February injured two workers. Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odour into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported. The Breathe Project, a public health organisation, said US Steel has been forced to pay USD 57 million in fines and settlements since January 1, 2020 for problems at the Clairton plant. A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area's air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there. An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he found no indication that US Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance programme for the Clairton plant. The Clairton plant, he wrote, is inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design. US Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades. Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said US Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe. Will Clairton be modernised? It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trump's approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel's promises to invest USD 11 billion into US Steel's aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings. But much of the USD 2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one. For years before the acquisition, US Steel had signalled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block. That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that US Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer. Relics of steelmaking's past In many ways, US Steel's Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking's past. In the early 1970s, US steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the US has built a blast furnace since then, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favour. Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the US, there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal. Blast furnaces won't entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms. Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Centre for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said. I'm not quite sure it's all set in stone as people believe, Briem said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
