(March 16) Stocks traded mixed Tuesday, following a session in which thebroader market notched new record highs, as traders digested a weaker than expected report on U.S. retail sales and looked ahead to a Federal Reserve policy meeting later this week.
The Dow and S&P 500 were little changed on Tuesday morning, trading near record highs as Federal Reserve officials kick off their March meeting.
The Dow slipped 32 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and set an intraday record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was the early outperformer, rising 0.6%.
A day earlier, both the Dow and S&P 500 reached new highs, bolstered by the signing of a new $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that's poised to spur consumer spending and ignite economic growth.
Most Americans are poised to receive $1,400 stimulus checks,which began arriving over the weekend, and Wall Street economists have already begun hiking their gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for the remainder of the year, amid expectations that the stimulus will unleash a consumer rebound. And while U.S. retail sales dipped by the most since April 2020 last month, the decline is likely to be a one-off, as additional stimulus and vaccine-enabled reopenings help stoke consumption.