Wall Street flat after volatility
AMERICAN stocks closed mostly flat yesterday after volatilility late in the session, with weakness in materials and energy shares offsetting strength in financials.
Shares traded higher for much of the session following unexpectedly strong figures on existing home sales, which lifted banks. But those gains dissipated in the last half hour of trading.
Facebook shares extended their slide and pressured the tech sector, giving investors few reasons to buy.
Bank of America was up 2.2 per cent while Best Buy rose 1.6 per cent.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.01 per cent, to 12,502.81 at the close. But the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 0.05 per cent, to 1,316.63. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.29 per cent, to close at 2,839.08.