Investing.com – Wall Street traded flat on Tuesday after U.S. indices hit all-time highs, as market participants took caution over a speculated rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fed) at its December meeting and investors once again began to doubt whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would reach a deal over production at their official meeting on November 30.
At 11:55AM ET (16:55GMT), the Dow Jones gained 19 points, or 0.10%, the S&P 500 slipped 2 points, or 0.09% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched up up 3 points, or 0.05%.
Gains on Tuesday initially took the Dow over the 19,000 point psychological barrier for the first time ever in a 1,000 point journey that took 483 trading days to complete, the seventh longest in the blue-chip index’s history.
U.S. equities continued to rack up gains taking nearly tripling the value of the blue-chip index since the March 9, 2009 bear market low, but buying appeared to run out of steam on Tuesday.
Most recently, a surprise triumph by Republican Donald Trump sparked a rally in stocks on speculation that policies including infrastructure spending would spur economic growth.
Markets also took in on Tuesday declarations by Trump that he planned to pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on his first day in office.
Furthermore, markets seemed to have digested the fact that the Federal Reserve (Fed) was planning to return on the path of policy normalization, with Fed fund futures pricing in the odds of a rate hike at the December 13-14 meeting at 95.4% on Tuesday, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Odds had been wavering between 95% and 100% for the last two days.
A second increase in the price of money had also come into investors’ sights with odds recently crossing the 50% threshold for an additional hike of at least 25 basis points at the June 2017 meeting.
Speculation of rated hikes and Trump policy induced inflation continued to support the dollar on Tuesday with the greenback up 0.18% at 101.12 at 11:56AM ET (16:56GMT), after a short bout of profit-taking a day earlier.
On a light day for economic data, existing home sales unexpectedly jumped in October, registering its largest advance since 2007.
Company news was still awash with instances of M&A on Tuesday.
U.S. buyout firm KKR & Co LP (NYSE:KKR) said it is buying auto parts maker Calsonic Kansei Corp (T:7248). from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (T:7201) and other shareholders for as much as 498.3 billion yen ($4.5 billion).
Soft-drinks maker Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc (N:NYSE:DPS) said it would buy Bai Brands LLC, a maker of antioxidant beverages, for $1.7 billion in cash.
In big moves on earnings, Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) jumped more than 9% after the discount retailer produced better than expected profit.
DSW Inc (NYSE:DSW) surged more than 10% after the shoe retailer narrowly beat consensus on profit and suggested that better inventory and cost control would improve future earnings.
Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) also tacked on gains of nearly 4% as it beat on both the top and bottom line and gave an optimistic outlook for 2017.
On the downside, Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) tumbled on the slowest revenue growth in its history as a public company and the fact that current-quarter guidance came in under consensus.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) also slumped 10% as the medical equipment maker cut its full-year guidance.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved lower in mid-day trade after Reuters reported that Iran, Iraq and Indonesia have doubts about the proposed output cut hammered out in a two-day meeting of an OPEC technical committee.
The cartel will make a final decision on the deal, aimed at curbing oversupply that has pressured prices lower for more than two years, on November 30.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.64% to $47.45 by 11:57AM ET (15:57GMT), while Brent oil traded down 1.00% to $48.41.