Wall Street hits fresh records

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo / Getty Images

Wall Street fluctuated, the S&P 500 retreating from a record high reached earlier in the day, amid disappointing earnings from TJX and mixed US economic data.

In 3.03pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 per cent. In 2.48pm trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.1 per cent.

Earlier in the session the S&P 500 inched to a record high 2,405.77. The Nasdaq also climbed to an all-time high.

The Dow moved lower as declines in shares of Pfizer and those of UnitedHealth, recently down 2 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively, outweighed gains in shares of Microsoft and those of IBM, up 1.7 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

Shares of TJX Cos slumped, down 4.2 per cent as of 3.04pm in New York, after the owner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Winners stores became the latest US retailer to post quarterly results that fell short of expectations, notably an easing in growth of comparable store sales.

"It's a combination of earnings and better than expected industrial production countered with concerns about future economic data and the fact we continue to see weak retail sales," Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St Louis, told Reuters.

"With the consumer being more than two-thirds of economic growth, if consumer spending is weak, can we continue to see solid economic growth?" Warne noted.

Indeed, the latest economic data offered a mixed picture.

A Federal Reserve report showed US manufacturing output jumped 1.0 per cent in April, following a decline of 0.4 per cent in March. However, a Commerce Department report showed housing starts fell 2.6 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units last month, the lowest level in five months and following a 6.6 percent drop in March.

"The sharp increase in industrial activity is a clear sign that the first-quarter sluggishness is behind us," Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania, told Reuters. "It comes at the right time as home construction seems to have hit a lull."

To be sure, the outlook for US housing remains upbeat.

"It's a little bit of a concern, but these numbers do bounce around," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial told Bloomberg.

"The overall trend is still higher and the backdrop for housing is still favourable."

In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with an increase of less than 0.1 per cent from the previous close. Germany's DAX Index inched 0.02 per cent lower while France's CAC40 Index shed 0.2 per cent.

The UK's FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.9 per cent, led by gains in shares of Vodafone Group.