WASHINGTON: US stocks began the week on the backfoot, hovering just below record levels, as shares in hospital operators fell and as investors readied for the upcoming earnings season. Having posted its fourth consecutive weekly advance last week, the S&P 500 ended Monday 0.2 per cent lower at 2,544.73 as a 0.3 per cent advance by the energy sector offset by a 0.7 per cent drop in healthcare stocks. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 per cent to 22,761.07 and the Nasdaq Composite snapped a 9-day winning streak to decline 0.2 per cent to 6,579.73. Investors soured on shares in hospital operators amid reports that President Donald Trump would sign an executive order this week to withdraw some insurance requirements laid out under Obamacare.
Monday’s risk-off sentiment also came as investors ready for third quarter earnings season with banks unofficially kicking things off as JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo reporting results later this week. They also await the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s September monetary policy meeting where officials signalled a third rate rise is still in the cards this year. And geopolitical tensions remained in the headlines, with reports that North Korea is readying to test a long-range missile and as tensions between the US and Turkey ratcheted up. The US put Turkey, its Nato ally, on a list of countries — that includes North Korea, Iran and Libya — whose citizens face restrictions on travel to America, after the arrest of a US embassy employee in Turkey last week. Elsewhere, the dollar index, a gauge of the buck against a basket of six peers, slid 0.1 per cent to 93.67 for the second consecutive day. Bond markets were closed for the Columbus Day holiday.
