Wall St. ends higher as fear over North Korea dissipates

Major US stock indexes ended higher on Tuesday after recovering from steep early losses triggered by fears that hostilities in the Korean Peninsula could escalate. The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.66% after US President Donald Trump warned that all options are on the table for the United States to respond after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over a Japanese island in a new show of force.

NEW YORK — Major US stock indices ended higher on Tuesday after recovering from steep early losses triggered by fears that hostilities in the Korean Peninsula could escalate.

The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.66% after US President Donald Trump warned that all options are on the table for the United States to respond after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over a Japanese island in a new show of force.

“When the president says ‘all options are on the table,’ the best strategy for investors is sometimes to do nothing,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Market analysts were relieved that the rift did not escalate further, with Mr. Trump’s focus on the devastation caused by tropical storm Harvey, which was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in 50 years when it made landfall last week.

“While it’s possible all these unfortunate events can add up to something more consequential, the (US) economy is pretty darn big and resilient,” Mr. Jacobsen said.

The storm shuttered refineries across the US energy hub in Texas but energy shares were little changed, with declines in oil services companies mostly offset by gains in refiners and some producers.

Ernesto Ramos, head of equities at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago, described the market reaction to the floods in Houston and surrounding areas as a “very stock- specific situation.” Shares of insurers fell on uncertainty over their stormrelated liabilities. An index of industry stocks dropped 0.50% to end at its lowest in two months.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56.97 points, or 0.26%, to 21,865.37, the S&P 500 gained 2.06 points, or 0.08%, to 2,446.30 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.87 points, or 0.30%, to 6,301.89.

Gains in the Nasdaq were led by the largest names, with Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, the biggest US companies by market value, all higher.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1.05-to-1; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored advancers. Nearly 285 issues across US exchanges hit their lowest in 52 weeks on Tuesday, more than the average over the last year of close to 230, while 355 hit a 52-week high, far below the average of almost 490 for every day over the last year. About 5.30 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, compared with the 5.90 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. —