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* ISM data shows upbeat business activity in October
* Dow up 0.28%, S&P 500 down 0.01%, Nasdaq up 0.14%
(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 was little
changed on Tuesday, pausing after growing expectations of a
trade deal between the United States and China helped boost the
three main U.S. stock indexes to record highs in the previous
session.
While there was growing optimism over a deal, investors have
also shown caution, pushing up value stocks over growth names
over the past few sessions. The Russell 1000 value .RLV index
has climbed nearly 2% over the past three sessions compared to a
gain of 0.8% for the Russell 1000 growth .RLG index.
Keeping some tentativeness intact, China is pushing
President Donald Trump to remove more tariffs as part of the
"phase one" deal, which may be signed this month, according to
latest reports. "It's a classic fear of either missing out but you maybe
want to take some profits," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio
manager at Globalt Investments in Atlanta, Georgia.
"You made some money and you have to be careful here, but
you have to be careful both ways, because there really has been
a shift in the growth and value thing just this month, in favor
of large cap value."
Financials .SPSY , a big weight for value stocks, were the
best performing S&P sector, up 0.71% as benchmark U.S. Treasury
yields hit a six-week high. In contrast, the rate-sensitive real
estate sector .SPLRCR dropped 1.72%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 76.89 points,
or 0.28%, to 27,539, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.29 points, or
0.01%, to 3,077.98 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 11.89
points, or 0.14%, to 8,445.09.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs for a
second session on Monday, while the Dow hit a record high for
the first time since July.
Apart from hopes of a resolution to the trade war, stocks
have received a boost from a largely better-than-expected
third-quarter earnings season, the Federal Reserve's interest
rate cut and upbeat economic data.
Data on Tuesday showed the reading on the ISM services index
improved to 54.7 in October from 52.6 in September, above
expectations of 53.4, according to economists polled by Reuters,
easing concerns that a slowdown in the manufacturing sector was
spreading to other parts of the economy.
Over three quarters of S&P 500 companies that have reported
results so far have beaten profit expectations, Refinitiv data
showed. Earnings for the quarter are now expected to dip 0.8%,
an improvement from the 2.2% decline expected on Oct. 1.
A 2.53% rise in Boeing Co's BA.N shares provided the
biggest boost to the blue-chip Dow Jones index after Chairman
Dave Calhoun said the company's board believed CEO Dennis
Muilenburg "has done everything right" following two fatal
crashes involving its 737 MAX jet. Helping the Nasdaq advance was Adobe Inc ADBE.O , which
gained 3.84% as the Photoshop software maker raised its
fourth-quarter digital media annualized recurring revenue target
and gave a strong forecast for fiscal 2020.
Kroger Co KR.N surged about 11.44% after the supermarket
chain forecast 2020 profit and comparable sales ahead of Wall
Street estimates. Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N fell 9.01% as the
ride-hailing service posted a bigger third-quarter loss from a
year earlier. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.12-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 58 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 144 new highs and 33 new lows.