US S&P 500 and Nasdaq closes at fresh peaks

The US economically-sensitive stocks climbed up further on Tuesday, 24 August 2021, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both posted new record closing highs, as bulls continued to find fuel in the formal full approval a day earlier of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine and amid optimism about growth.

Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve's annual central banking event in Jackson Hole, Wyo. later this week, focused on whether or not central bankers will detail their plans for tapering monetary stimulus. The Fed has started discussions to pull back its $120 billion a month bond-buying program by the end of this year. The summit will take place virtually on Thursday, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will give a speech on Friday.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 30.55 points, or 0.09%, to 35,366.226. The S&P 500 index added 6.70 points, or 0.15%, to 4,486.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up 77.15 points, or 0.52%, to 15,019.80.

Total 6 of 11 S&P500 sectors advanced, while remaining 5 sectors closed down. Energy (up 1.61%) sector was top leader, followed by consumer discretionary (up 0.76%), financials (up 0.67%), and materials (up 0.67%) sectors, while consumer staples (down 0.76%) was worst performing sector, followed by real estate (down 0.72%) and utilities (down 0.63%) sectors.

Total volume turnover on U.S. exchanges was 8.06 billion shares, up from previous session volume of 7.73 billion shares. In the NYSE exchange, 2241 issues advanced, 1086 issues declined, and 154 issues closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 2873 issues advanced, 1587 issues declined, and 194 issues unchanged.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing a rebound in new home sales in the month of July. The report showed new home sales increased by 1.0% to an annual rate of 708,000 in July after slumping by 2.6% to an upwardly revised rate of 701,000 in June. While new home sales in June were upwardly revised, the annual rate still represented the lowest level since April of last year. The increase in new home sales came as new home sales in the West skyrocketed by 14.4% to an annual rate of 215,000. New home sales in the South also climbed by 1.3%, while new home sales in the Northeast and Midwest plummeted by 24.1% and 20.2%, respectively. The Commerce Department also said the median sales price of new houses sold in July was $390,500, up 5.5% from $370,200 in June and up 18.4% from $329,800 a year ago. The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 367,000, representing a supply of 6.2 months at the current sales rate.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS fell 0.91% to $23.88, Wipro fell 0.66% to $9.03, and WNS Holdings fell 0.44% to $83.05, while Vedanta added 4.6% to $15.47, and ICICI Bank rose 1.5% to $18.90. HDFC Bank added 0.57% to $77.79, Dr Reddys Labs added 0.61% to $61.50, and Tata Motors added 2.08% to $19.12.

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