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U.S. Stocks Waver Amid Fed Officials' Remarks-June 24
 

U.S. stocks fluctuated for the week as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve officials, while big tech shares tried to rebound from last week's sell-off.

New York Fed President William Dudley said on Monday that the central bank inflation should pick up as wages rise along with continuing improvement in the labor market.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said on Tuesday the current low-rate environment was likely to remain for some time, adding that low rates handicap the central bank's ability to "offset negative shocks."

Meanwhile, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said that while the United States and other nations have taken actions to strengthen their housing finance systems, more needs to be done to prevent a future crisis.

Their words came in less than a week after the Fed raised its interest rates for the fourth time since December 2015.

Investors are overall skeptical the central bank will raise rates again in September. Market expectations for a September-hike are about 18 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

During the week, large-cap tech shares, including those of Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, all rebounded strongly as investors shook off fears about a possible tech bubble.

Last week, the tech sector traded overall lower following the previous week's rout, after Alphabet was downgraded by analysts at Canaccord Genuity.

On the economic front, U.S. total existing home sales climbed 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.62 million in May from a downwardly revised 5.56 million in April, beating market consensus, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In the week ending June 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 241,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level.

U.S. house prices rose in April, up 0.7 percent from the previous month's reading, above market consensus of 0.5 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index Thursday.

Sales of U.S. new single-family houses in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000. This is 2.9 percent above the revised April rate of 593,000 and is 8.9 percent above the May 2016 estimate of 560,000.

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index falling from 53.6 to 53.0 in June, lower than market expectations. The latest reading signaled the slowest upturn in business activity for three months.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow edged up 0.05 percent, and the broader S&P 500 rose 0.21 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.84 percent.


(www.chinaview.cn 2017-06-26)
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