Investors turned cautious after reports that President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation. The latest development could distract the Trump administration from its priorities such as tax reform, healthcare and simpler regulations. Analysts, however, played down the potential impact to the market.
"This kind of backdrop is very conducive to stock-pickers and that is helping drive idiosyncratic positions across markets," said Matt Miskin, senior capital markets research analyst at John Hancock Investments in Boston, Massachusetts. Home Depot's better-than-expected first-quarter performance drove the stock up 1.4 percent, providing the biggest boost to the Dow. Smaller rival Lowe's was up 0.5 percent. At 12:41 pm ET (1641 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 12.53 points, or 0.06 percent, at 20,994.47.
The S&P 500 was down 0.77 points, or 0.03 percent, at 2,401.55, easing from an all-time high of 2,405.77. The Nasdaq Composite was up 11.70 points, or 0.19 percent, at 6,161.37, after touching a record of 6,162.71. Five of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, led by a 0.4 percent decline in healthcare. Technology was up 0.27 percent, helped by Microsoft, and the rest were flat. Pfizer was down 1.7 percent at $32.54 after Citigroup downgraded the drug developer's stock to "sell" from "neutral".
Copyright Reuters, 2017