US close: Mixed performance on the Street as impeachment proceedings begin
US stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday as investors eyed impeachment proceedings and continued to mull over Sino-US trade developments.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10% at 28,239.28, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% lower at 3,191.14 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.05% higher at 8,827.73.
The Dow closed 27.88 points lower as House Democrats began to vote on two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, although the move was said to be unlikely to result in his removal from office.
Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG, said: "The US focus on impeachment proceedings does raise questions over exactly what the state of this trade deal would be if Trump is removed from office. While many believe such an eventuality is unlikely, the surge of support for such a move is certainly grabbing the attention of markets that has thus far largely ignored proceedings."
Rabobank analysts said: "There looks almost certain to be no political pay-off for markets to worry about from this epic impeachment saga - except perhaps to enthuse Republican voters and make Trump 2020 more, not less, likely; and in McConnell’s eyes, to introduce the concept of destabilising, spurious impeachments into the US political canon (though one might argue they were already there)."
The US and China announced last week that they had agreed a "phase one" trade deal. The US has committed to halving its 15% tariff on around $120bn of imports from China, which will increase its US imports by $200bn over the next two years.
The US Trade Secretary also said that China will commit to importing at least $40bn of US agricultural products.
Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "The final few pieces of tape are still being applied and who knows how long that will take. This deal was done in October, remember. Still, no new tariffs makes for a very merry Christmas for US consumers and Chinese manufacturers."
On the corporate front, General Mills shares closed 1.99% higher after reporting an earnings beat, while Toro slumped 6.17% in the session despite topping sales of $3bn for the first time.
Gains were also kept in check thanks to some weak earnings from shipping giant FedEx.