Stocks Finish Lower After Paring Losses on U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Pact
December 10 2019 - 5:45PM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Isaac and Akane Otani
Stocks inched lower, paring early declines after Democratic
lawmakers reached an agreement with the Trump administration to
support a trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
The trading day unfolded quietly, even as a flurry of news
caught traders' and analysts' attention. Stock futures had
initially climbed after The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S.
and Chinese trade negotiators were looking to delay a new round of
tariffs. They then erased some of their gains heading into the
opening bell after House Democrats announced two articles of
impeachment against President Trump.
Markets then drifted off their lows after House Democrats said
they reached an agreement with the administration on a trade deal
with Mexico and Canada.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 27.88
points, or 0.1%, to 27881.72. The S&P 500 lost 3.44 points, or
0.1%, to 3132.52, and the Nasdaq Composite edged down 5.64 points,
or 0.1%, to 8616.18.
Developments from Washington as well as news on trade could spur
further market volatility heading into year-end.
Chinese and U.S. officials involved in the talks to postpone
tariffs on $165 billion of Chinese goods set to kick in on Dec. 15
say they don't have a hard deadline for an initial deal. "A lot of
different options are still on the table. We just don't know what's
going to happen," said Oliver Jones, market economist at Capital
Economics. "At one end of the spectrum, there's a deal and the
tariffs rollback. But just last week we had Trump's remarks that
there might not be a deal until after the election."
Declines among technology companies weighed on major indexes,
with Netflix down $9.38, or 3.1%, to $293.12 after Needham analysts
downgraded the stock to underperform from hold.
Deal news also drove swings among individual stocks.
Shares of NortonLifeLock climbed 88 cents, or 3.5%, to $26.28
after the Journal reported that the consumer-software company has
attracted deal interest from several companies, including rival
McAfee.
Federal Reserve officials kicked off their final two-day policy
meeting of the year Tuesday. Officials are expected to decide to
hold steady on interest rates after lowering their benchmark rate
three times since July to try to cushion the U.S. economy against a
slowdown in global growth.
The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.3%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100
index dropped 0.3%. Britain is preparing to head to the polls
Thursday for a general election.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.1%. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng Index lost 0.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3%,
while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1%.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which compares the currency with 16
others, fell 0.1% to 90.56.
Write to Anna Isaac at anna.isaac@wsj.com and Akane Otani at
akane.otani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 10, 2019 17:30 ET (22:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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