US open: Stocks little changed despite upbeat economic reports
Wall Street was trading on a mixed note roughly two hours on from the open, despite two better-than-expected readings on the economy, with traders heading into the weekend mulling the implications of the latest round of global trade tensions.
At 1536 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was up by 0.16% or 40.17 points to 23,996.92, alongside a dip of 0.01% or 0.19 points for the S&P 500 to 2,643.78, while the Nasdaq Composite was to be seen drifting lower by 0.28% or 20.05 points to 7,142.95.
From a sector stand-point, the strongest areas of the market were: Defence (2.96%), Gold Mining (2.85%) and Mining (2.65%).
Going the other way, the main laggards were: Non-ferrous metals (-5.89%), Basic Resources (-5.37%) and Biotechnology (-4.54%).
Meanwhile, the KBW index of lenders' shares was down by 1.67% at 105.75, amid negative comments out of strategists at BoA-Merrill who in a research note sent to clients cautioned that "[the] pain trade still lower stocks, higher CNY, lower bond yields on peaking PMI/EPS… financials, tech, EAFE most vulnerable."
A day earlier, the Dow Jones index closed 2.9% lower, the S&P 500 dropped 2.5% and the Nasdaq 2.4% as equities experienced their biggest sell off since 8 February.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed off on 25% tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese imports in a bid to punish the People's Republic for intellectual property infringements, among other measures.
China, meanwhile, said it was planning to impose tariffs on $3bn worth of US products in retaliation. The list included pork, wine, fruit, nuts and stainless steel pipes. In a statement earlier on Friday the Chinese commerce ministry said: "China doesn't hope to be in a trade war, but is not afraid of engaging in one."
Nonetheless, and commenting on the running trade tiff between the two countries, analysts at Nomura said: "Taken altogether, trade risks remain a point of concern for our economic outlook.
"However, the weakening steel and aluminium tariffs, softer-than-expected Section 301 announcement against China, and a slightly brighter outlook for NAFTA indicate that perhaps trade tensions are not quite as high as previously assumed."
Adding to the downbeat tone were worries about Trump's decision to replace national security adviser HR McMaster with war-hungry former UN ambassador John Bolton.
Helping to offset those concerns, the Commerce Department reported that US durable goods orders jumped by 3.1% month-on-month in February (consensus: 1.6%), driven by demand for civilian and military aircraft and cars.
In other news, US new home sales dipped by 0.6% last month to reach an annualised pace of 618,000 (consensus: 620,000), albeit alongside upwards revisions to the data for January.
Still ahead for later in the session was a speech from Boston Federal Reserve chief Eric Rosengren at midnight.
Speaking just after the market open in New York, his peer at the Atlanta Fed, Raphael Bostic said he would likely support more interest rate hikes in 2018.
On the corporate side of things, Pfizer was weaker after GlaxoSmithKline said it's no longer interested in the company's consumer healthcare business. This came a day after Reckitt Benckiser said the same.
Elsewhere, Nike rallied after better-than-expected third-quarter numbers.
Shares of grocery chain Kroger were also on the up, following an early spike on the back of a report that it had entered into merger talks with Target.