New York Report: Wall St ticks up as US investors turn positive
World stock markets edged up for a sixth straight session on Wednesday after upbeat trade data from China soothed worries about slower global growth, while the pound rose to a two-week high against the dollar.
The Dow and S&P 500 closed down slightly, however, snapping four days of gains after Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest maker of consumer products, cut its outlook for profit and sales growth.
The Chinese trade data showed solid demand, with exports up in January, easing fears that the world’s second-largest economy is mired in a slowdown and reviving investors’ appetite for emerging market assets that had been battered in recent weeks.
The Dow fell 30.83 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 15,963.94; the S&P 500 lost 0.49 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 1,819.26; and the Nasdaq added 10.243 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 4,201.288.
Procter & Gamble shares lost 1.7 per cent to $77.49 (£46.64) and weighed on both the Dow and S&P 500 after the company cut its sales and earnings growth outlooks for the year to reflect unfavourable foreign exchange rates in Venezuela and the devaluation of currencies in various developing markets.
The move in stocks followed a rally on Tuesday after the US Congress voted to suspend the debt limit until March 2015 and the Federal Reserve’s new chief, Janet Yellen, held off from making any changes to the schedule for trimming stimulus.