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Major U.S. stock indexes fluctuated on Tuesday after data showed housing starts dropped sharply last month.
The Dow Jones Industrials stumbled 56.27 points to 34,271.52,
The S&P 500 inched up 0.39 points to 4,163.68,
The NASDAQ hiked 77.25 points to 13,456.29.
Housing starts tumbled 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.569 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast starts falling to a rate of 1.7 million units in April.
Better-than-expected earnings from Home Depot and Walmart helped support sentiment.
Walmart shares jumped more than 3% after reporting strong grocery sales and e-commerce growth for the quarter.
Home Depot shares rose more than 1% after stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The retailer reported earnings of $3.86 a share for the previous quarter, much higher than the $3.08 expected by analysts Net sales surged 32.7%, more than expected.
Major tech stocks continued to rebound with Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft trading higher. Nvidia gained 1%.
Growth-heavy stocks have remained under pressure in recent sessions as investors fret over whether a pop in inflation will entrench or blow over as the Federal Reserve expects. Inflation above the Fed’s 2% target for a sustained period could prompt the central bank to tighten monetary policy and dampen stocks that outperform the market when interest rates are low.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys were unchanged, keeping yields at Monday’s 1.65%.
Oil prices sank 48 cents to $65.79 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $3.40 to $1,864.20 U.S. an ounce.
