Investing.com – US stocks closed mixed on Wednesday after a rally in tech was offset by a slump in financials as the Federal Reserve expressed concerns about high asset valuations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,526. The S&P 500 closed 0.08% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6867.36, up 0.07%.
The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 showed Fed members raised concerns about the impact on the economy should the trend of rapidly rising asset prices reverse.
“… several participants expressed concerns about a potential buildup of financial imbalances," the minutes stated.
In what was subdued day on Wall Street as volumes were light ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, investors digested mixed earnings reports which did little to lift sentiment on equities.
Despite posting earnings that beat estimates, HP Inc. fell more than 8% after CEO Meg Whitman announced she will leave her role early next year. Shares of Salesforce, meanwhile, slipped 1.82% as weak guidance offset better-than-estimated quarterly earnings.
On the economic front, upbeat initial jobless claims data was offset by a slump in durable goods orders for October.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims fell 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 18, missing forecasts of a 10,000 increase.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, fell 0.5% last month after an upwardly revised 2.1% increase in September.
In corporate news, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) surged 1% amid reports that the tech giant's cloud business is about to announce a health-care deal with Cerner, one of the largest health technology companies in the world.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) up 2%, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) up 1.8% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) up 1.1%
DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) down 0.9%, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) down 0.8% and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) down 0.7%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.