US open: Stocks mixed following record highs in previous session
Wall Street trading got off to a mixed start on Tuesday after US stocks hit another record high in the previous session.
As of 1535 BMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.05% stronger at 30,419.48 and the S&P 500 was up 0.08% at 3,738.36, while the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 0.17% lower at 12,876.92.
The Dow opened 15.51 points higher on Tuesday, slightly extending gains recorded in the previous session after Donald Trump unexpectedly signed off on a long-awaited second Covid-19 stimulus package.
In focus on Tuesday was a mixture of vaccine rollouts, fiscal stimulus and easy monetary policy across the globe amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with the US now having recorded more than 19.78m total cases of Covid-19, claiming the lives of more than 343,180 Americans in the process.
On the macro front, US house prices grew more than expected in October despite the pandemic, hitting a six-year high, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index. The 20-city index rose 7.9% year-over-year, up from a 6.6% increase in September and beating expectations for a 6.9% jump.
Meanwhile, the national home price NSA index covering all nine US census divisions rose 8.4% on the year in October, up from 7% growth the month before.