Wall Street Mixed as Nasdaq Hits 4-Month High, Dow Falls Amid Weak Home Sales Data

U.S. stocks showed mixed performance with the Nasdaq rising, while housing and real estate stocks dragged the Dow lower; ceasefire news and Asia gains balanced market sentiment.

Nasdaq rose 61.02 points (0.3%) to a new four-month closing high of 19,973.55, the S&P 500 edge down 0.02 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,092.16 and the Dow slipped 106.59 points (0.3%) to 42,982.43.

Wall Street opened higher on recent momentum but lost steam as traders eyed Middle East tensions. A ceasefire between Israel and Iran eased some concerns. Profit-taking followed after markets hit four-month highs.

Commerce Department showed a substantial pullback by new home sales in the U.S. in the month of May. It said new home sales plunged by 13.7% to an annual rate of 623,000 in Mayafter spiking by 9.6% to a revised rate of 722,000 in April.

Commercial real estate stocks significantly moved downwards, dragging the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index down by 2.4%. Housing stocks are considerably weak following the new home sales data, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index slumping by 1.9%. Oil service, airline and natural gas stocks were notably weak while strength among networking stocks contributed to the uptick by the Nasdaq.

Asia-Pacific stocks moved mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.2%. The major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5%, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6% and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8%.

In the bond market, treasuries recovered from early weakness to end the session roughly flat. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, ended the day unchanged at 4.29%.

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