Wall Street trading got off to a relatively flat start on Tuesday after the Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed at fresh record highs in the previous session on the back of some strong economic data.
As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.02% at 33,535.00, while the S&P 500 was 0.14% firmer at 4,083.53 and the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 0.08% stronger at 13,717.08.
The Dow opened 7.81 points higher on Tuesday, narrowly extending gains recorded in the previous session.
Market participants were continuing to cheer Friday’s stellar jobs report and a surge in the gauge of services industry activity as a result of a rebounding US economy amid the nation’s accelerated Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Also in focus, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped off recent highs to around 1.68%, easing fears around inflation, as was Joe Biden’s $2.0trn infrastructure proposal and his intention to up the corporate tax to 28% to fund it.
On the macro front, the number of job openings edged up to 7.4m on the last business day of February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with hires also edging up to 5.7m and total separations little changed at 5.5m.
Still to come, consumer inflation expectations for March will be published at 1600 BST.
In the corporate space, the fallout from the Archegos scandal has led Credit Suisse to warn that it will take a charge of $4.7bn and turn in a first-quarter pre-tax loss of roughly $960.0m.
Tesla was in the green after posting record first-quarter deliveries yesterday, while GameStop posted early losses on news that it will sell as many as 3.5m shares to assemble a $1.0bn war chest to fund its e-commerce strategy.
Stocks tied to an economic reopening continued off on their recent upward trajectory, with the likes of United Airlines, Delta, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean all trading higher.
