Across Wall Street Friday, stock indices hardly budged, leaving the S&P 500 just short of its peak once again.
The S&P 500 edged down 0.58, or less than 0.1%, to 3,372.85 after drifting between small gains and losses throughout the day.
They are the new meandering developments for the market that took a rest after almost all the steep declines incurred by the coronavirus pandemic have been eliminated.
The S&P 500 took a fleeting run over its record closing peak, set in February, in both of the two intervening days, only to fade in the afternoon. It remains below its record of 0.4 per cent.
Wall Street was almost equally divided between stocks that rose and dropped, and the movements were almost universally moderate. The weighted average of Dow Jones rose by 34.30 points. Or, 0.1 percent to 27.931.02. Meanwhile, the index of Nasdaq fell by 23.20 or 0.2 percent, to 11.019.30.
Retail buying is the main locomotive for the U.S. economy. And, a Friday survey shows even further progress for U.S. stores, albeit less than predicted by analysts.
Sales at grocery stores, gas stations and other retailers rose 1.2% last month from June. It’s the third straight month of gains, following a historic plunge in the spring. But, it marked a sharp slowdown from June’s 8.4% growth. It also fell short of the 2% growth that economists were expecting.
The report showed the economy is now “more in a soft turnaround process,” said Mike Zigmont, Harvest Volatility Management ‘s director of trading and analysis.
“It’s fine but it’s not as explosive as it used to be,” he said.
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