Dow, S&P 500 dip as markets eye Fed, trade talks

March 20, 2019 | 09:45

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Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Tuesday (Mar 19) following conflicting reports on US-China trade talks and as the Federal Reserve began a two-day monetary policy meeting.

dow sp 500 dip as markets eye fed trade talks

A street sign for Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City. (Source: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo/File Photo)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 26.72 points (0.10 per cent) at 25,887.38.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.37 points (0.01 per cent) at 2,832.57, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 9.47 points (0.12 per cent) to 7,723.95.

Stocks spent much of the day solidly positive but weakened following a Bloomberg report that described tensions between the United States and China on trade terms that could pose problems for a broad agreement.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will return to Beijing next week to resume talks, a senior administration official told AFP on Tuesday.

Nate Thooft, senior managing director at Manulife Investments, said equities were also primed for a pullback after rallying last week ahead of Wednesday's Fed decision.

"People are starting to realize the Fed can't be more dovish than how it has already been," Thooft said.

The US central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged and could signal it anticipates fewer interest rate hikes in 2019.

Among individual companies, chip company Advanced Micro Devices surged 11.8 per cent after Alphabet's Google said its new streaming video game service would employ the company's technology.

AFP/ REUTERS

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