US Stocks Open Slightly Lower Despite Trade Optimism

Wall Street pulled back from Monday’s big gains, opening Tuesday’s session slightly lower despite continued optimism on the prospects for a partial US-China trade deal.

Investors are awaiting news from the Federal Reserve, which opened its two-day meeting Tuesday amid expectations it will deliver a third consecutive reduction in borrowing rates.

Meanwhile, a flood of major earnings releases is competing with key economic data reports, including consumer confidence Tuesday and all-important employment data on Friday.

The S&P 500 shot to a new record close on Monday but eased back at the open, slipping 0.1 percent to 3,036.95 about 15 minutes into the trading day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was essentially flat at 27,075.21, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.3 percent to 8,300.64.

“It has been a busy period of earnings reporting since yesterday’s close, yet that busy business has failed to move the needle much for the market,” Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com said in a market commentary.

Stocks have been moving cautiously higher over the past week after US President Donald Trump announced major progress towards a “phase one” trade agreement with China.
The hope is the deal will remove some of the tariffs that have frozen investments and have begun to hit US manufacturing.

Trump has said he expects to sign the partial deal with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Santiago.

The South China Morning Post reported Tuesday from Hong Kong that the Trump-Xi meeting is set for November 17 — at the conclusion of the summit — citing a source briefed on the arrangements.

General Motors shares gained 4.6 percent after the company said the 40-day strike that ended on Friday would slash $3 billion off the bottom line for the year.
Despite that, the company’s quarterly earnings topped expectations.

Google-parent Alphabet lost 2.1 percent after missing earnings estimates in the results reported after the close on Tuesday.

And pharmaceutical giant Pfizer jumped 3.6 percent and Merck gained 1.8 percent after blowing past quarterly earnings estimates and raising their full-year profit forecasts.

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