US Stocks end mixed on Friday

The US shares were mixed in lacklustre trade Friday, 25 March 2022, with the Dow and the S&P500 indexes settling higher, while the Nasdaq closed down. The lacklustre performance on Wall Street came as ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict kept investors on edge. Meanwhile, weaker than expected University of Michigan consumer sentiment data and the National Association of Realtors pending home sales reports also dampened sentiments.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced by 153.30 points, or 0.44%, to 34,861.24. The S&P500 index grew by 22.90 points, or 0.51%, to 4,543.06. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 22.54 points, or 0.16%, to 14,169.30. For the week, the Dow edged up by 0.3%, while the S&P 500 jumped by 1.8% and the Nasdaq surged by 2%.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 1702 to 1609 and 136 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1951 issues advanced, 2734 issues declined, and 266 issues unchanged.

Total 9 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes inclined, with top performing sector were energy (up 2.28%), financials (up 1.31%), real estate (up 1.23%), and materials (up 1.1%).

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Pending Home Sales Tumble 4.1% In February- US pending home sales index tumbled by 4.1% to 104.9 in February after plunging by 5.8% to a revised 109.4 in January, the National Association of Realtors reported on Friday. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

US Consumer Sentiment Index Falls In March- US consumer sentiment index for March was downwardly revised to 59.4 from the preliminary reading of 59.7, revised data released by the University of Michigan on Friday showed. With the unexpected downward revision, the consumer sentiment was at its lowest level since hitting 55.8 in August of 2011. The report showed one-year inflation expectations jumped to 5.4% in March from 4.9% in February, reaching the highest level since November 1981. The current economic conditions index edged down to 67.2 in March from 68.2 in February, while the index of consumer expectations slumped to 54.3 from 59.4.

Among Indian ADR, HDFC Bank fell 0.86% to $60.28, ICICI Bank sank 0.38% to $18.19, Wipro fell 0.38% to $7.90, Tata Motors shed 0.63% to $28.40, and Azure Power Global fell 1.58% to $18.68, while WNS Holdings added 0.64% to $84.62, Dr Reddy's Labs added 0.05% to $56.25, and INFOSYS rose 0.24% to $24.73.

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