US open: Mixed trading at the bell following President's Day pause
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Tuesday 19 Feb 2019
(Sharecast News) - US stocks opened on a mixed note as Wall Street trading began on Tuesday, with investors waiting on fresh headlines coming from the US-China trade talks which were set to resume in Washington later in the day.
As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.01% to 25,881.53, while the S&P 500 had picked up 0.03% to 2,776.40 and the Nasdaq traded 0.11% firmer at 7,480.53.
The Dow had reversed much of its earlier losses as the market appeared to be mostly unperturbed by the President's declaration of a national emergency the Friday before in order to fund his border wall last week.
In response, sixteen states filed a federal lawsuit on the following Monday, challenging Trump's declaration.
Vying for investors' attention, US Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester told an audience that official short-term interest rates may need to move "a bit higher".
For her part, Mester reportedly added that the central bank was neither "far behind or ahead of the curve" when it came to setting the optimal level for official short-term interest rates.
In corporate news, Wal Mart was up 3.44% in early trade after it posted much stronger-than-expected domestic like-for-like sales from its recently wrapped up trading quarter.
Elsewhere, Stanley Black & Decker was 0.14% lower at the bell after it said it would book a $50m charge against its 2018 earnings per share as a result of the bankruptcy of IPS Worldwide.
Cooper Tire and Rubber was also down 3.44% after revealing better-than-expected adjusted quarterly earnings of $0.66 per share, but sales of $770m - short of analysts' estimates.
Advance Auto Parts inched 0.35% lower after it reported a smaller-than-expected increase in its fourth quarter same-store sales of 3.4% and offered weaker-than-expected guidance on sales for 2019.
On the data front, the National Association of Homebuilders' monthly confidence index rose four points to a seasonally adjusted figure of 62 in February, asking the second improvement in a row for the index.
Last month, the index, which tracks views of current sales conditions, gained three points to a reading of 67.
Despite the strong reading, the NAHB cautioned that "affordability remains a critical issue".
The industry body pointed out that builders felt regulations were still "excessive" and that the Trump administration's tariffs had made raw materials much more expensive.
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