Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Health and tech stocks dip
U.S. stocks finished lower Tuesday as losses for health care and technology companies canceled out gains for banks. Another gain for Amazon briefly brought its market value to $1 trillion.
Banks rose as interest rates climbed. Nike slumped after it gave a major endorsement deal to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, known for his protests of police brutality and racial injustice.
Investors didn’t commit to many big moves as trading resumed after the Labor Day holiday. They are likely to focus on trade this week, as the U.S. is scheduled to resume trade talks with Canada on Wednesday and could announce new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports later in the week.
Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at financial services firm Nationwide, said investors are paying less attention to trade-related headlines recently because they are fairly certain they know how the talks will end.
“I’m still pretty confident that before midterms or by the end of the year we’re going to have a handshake agreement with the NAFTA region and China,” he said.
The S&P 500 index gave up 4.80 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,896.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 12.34 points to 25,952.48. The Nasdaq composite fell 18.29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 8,091.25.