US equities end modestly higher

US equities registered a choppy session on Tuesday although the benchmark indices managed to end the day modestly higher. Despite the choppy trading, the Dow crept up to a new record closing high. The Dow inched up 9.98 points or less than tenth of a percent to 41,250.50, the Nasdaq rose 29.05 points or 0.2 percent to 17,754.82 and the S&P 500 edged up 8.96 points or 0.2 percent to 5,625.80.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). Energy stocks also saw notable weakness amid a steep drop by the price of crude oil, while semiconductor stocks regained ground after falling sharply on Monday. Telecom stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index tumbling by 2.5 percent.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday unexpectedly showing a modest improvement by U.S. consumer confidence in the month of August. The report said the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from an upwardly revised 101.9 in July. The Conference Board also said the present situation index improved to 134.4 in August from 133.1 in July, while the expectations index ticked up to 82.5 in August 81.1 in July.

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