Wall Street today: US stocks subdued as investors eye further economic data

US stock indices were subdued on Wednesday, as investors were awaiting further data on the state of the economy.

The next big economic data due this week will be on personal income and personal spending for August, and PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) index for August.

As of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, the S&P 500 was 0.1 per cent higher, a day after setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.2 per cent higher.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 27.9 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 42236.09. The S&P 500 fell 0.7 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 5733.65, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 24.2 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 18050.357.

A report showed that new home sales stood at 0.716 million in August.

Among the largecap stocks, Nvidia gained 2.2 per cent, while Apple slipped 0.4 per cent.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise rallied 5.6 per cent after Barclays upgraded the server maker's stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight".

Ford stock fell 4.8 per cent and General Motors declined 6 per cent after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the two automakers.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.76 per cent from 3.73 per cent late on Tuesday. The 2-year yield fell to 3.53 per cent from 3.54 per cent.

Bullion

Gold prices were steady after hitting an all-time high on Wednesday on hopes of another big Federal Reserve rate cut.

Spot gold was steady at $2,655.35 per ounce by 1059 GMT, after hitting an all-time high of $2,670.43 earlier. US gold futures gained 0.1 per cent to $2,679.60.

Spot silver fell 0.9 per cent to $31.85 per ounce.

Crude oil

Oil prices eased on Wednesday after the biggest advance in more than a week.

Brent crude traded beneath $75 a barrel after rising 1.7 per cent on Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate below $71.