U.S. stocks opened Tuesday trading mixed, with the Dow industrials rising on the back of early moves in Amgen Inc. AMGN, +7.82% and Goldman Sachs GS, +0.53%.
Equity indexes, however, continued to confront friction against the prospect of rising interest rates for benchmark debt, with the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.964% at around 1.96%, around its highest yield since 2019. Rising yields are a weight on valuations for speculative and growth-oriented stocks, which are being rerated for tighter monetary policy and higher borrowing costs.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.06% was trading 82 points, or 0.2%, higher at around 35,182.
- The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.84% was trading 0.1% lower, weighed by declines in consumer discretionary SP500.25, +1.50%, energy SP500.10, -2.12% and health care SP500.35, +0.79%, despite the rise in Amgen.
- The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +1.28% was trading less than 0.1% lower at 14,004.
In other corporate news, investors were focused on shares of exercise equipment maker Peloton Interactive PTON, +25.28%, which was after it said it would replace its chief executive, overhaul its board and cut costs, including lay off 2,800 employees. Shares of Pfizer Inc. PFE, -2.84% were lower, weighing on the health sector, after the drug maker reported fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations, while revenue more than doubled but missed forecasts.
In economic data, the U.S. trade deficit jumped 27% in 2021 to a record $859 billion largely because a recovering economy gave Americans the means to buy more imports. They also paid higher prices due to rising inflation.
The deficit widened in December by 1.8% to $80.7 billion, marking it the second largest monthly increase ever. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a $82.9 billion shortfall.