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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened a tad higher on Tuesday but stronger-than-expected housing market data struggled to inject any real momentum, against a background of ongoing political uncertainty.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14 points, or less than 0.1%, at 27,792 points. The S&P 500, which failed in an attempt to post a new record high on Monday, was up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6%.
Earlier, the Census Bureau reported that U.S. housing starts had risen by 22% last month, their biggest monthly rise since 2016, to 1.496 million. That was well above analysts’ forecasts for an increase to 1.24 million, as was a similar increase in building permits to 1.495 million.
Market participants took the numbers with a grain of salt, as analysts said they spoke to a surge in interest for single-family houses outside of major cities. As a result, city real estate prices may come under pressure, with attendant negative wealth effects on city home owners.
By the same token, the market also quickly shed its initial enthusiasm for Walmart (NYSE:WMT)’s quarterly earnings. seeing them as less an illustration of consumer strength, than as a result of consumers concentrating their spending in the few outlets that were allowed to remain open during lockdown. Walmart stock still rose 0.6%.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) stock also reversed after trading higher in premarket on the back of results which beat expectations for both revenue and profit by over 20%.
